I remember once coming across a setting where I could change what that little trigger button does when your laptop shuts; one of the options was “nothing” if I remember right. Now when I’m working with a borrowed laptop with a broken hinge, so that it’s constantly bumping that little trigger and going into standby, I can’t for the life of me find that setting again. Maybe because I don’t actually know what that little thingy is called. . . .
Anyone have a suggestion? Thanks in advance.
That option is usually found in your laptops power settings. Click on the battery icon in the bottom right system tray and you’ll probably want to click something like ‘More power options’. Normally there are several modes, power saver, high performance etc and under each category there should be something along the lines of "change power settings’. Should be able to find what you’re looking for there.
On my laptop it’s under Power Options->Advanced
There’s a dropdown for “When I close the lid of my portable computer:”
and the choices are:
Thanks. There was no icon, but your suggestion sent me back to the screensaver window in the system properties thingy, you know, when you right click on the desktop. So now the problem’s solved, PLUS there’s now a battery icon in my lower right hand system tray. Thanks!
Wow, that was an awesome Great Debate! What’s next? 
If you fully close your laptops lid in ‘do nothing mode’ so nobody can see it, does it truly display your desktop?
Off to General Questions.
I’ve never understood the difference between standby and hibernate. Can someone explain?
In standby, most of the computer’s components switch off, but the memory (RAM) keeps drawing a small current to maintain its contents. In hibernate, the contents of RAM are stored on the hard drive and everything switches off. Your computer comes out of standby much faster than hibernate because it doesn’t have to read all the memory contents from the hard drive to get started.
If you left a laptop in standby for long enough (and it is a long time) eventually it would drain the battery (assuming you didn’t plug it in to the mains power). Standby requires special hardware support, which is why it’s usually only available on laptops; a modern operating system can hibernate on virtually any hardware.
Thanks!