Just a silly little thing, but I don't reckon there is any way to confirm that an HD Desire is switched off, without (if it is switched off) turning the damn thing back on.

Am I right?

Dont get what you mean.

On mine when i power down it says its shutting down.

There is no way I can think of as the volume buttons (in fact no buttons) do anything when the screen is off or the phone is off.

So screen off or power off you wouldn't know without pressing the top button. If it's off it would come on, if it's on it will display the lock screen.

I thought to turn them back on you had to hold in the power button whereas just a single press wouldn't actually turn it on but if it was locked a single press would display the locked screen...

I've only played with the Desire HD, though and my own phone is the Hero but that's what happened on both of those...

That's also true for the (non-HD) Desire; press the power button briefly - If it's off nothing will happen, if on it comes out of standby. But the HD has Fastboot so it's never really off unless the battery has been removed, so that may not apply.