A method protects a power button of a computing device. The computing device includes a front panel and a motherboard. The front panel includes a protection switch and a power button. The motherboard includes a power protection unit that displays a power-on simulation icon and a power-off simulation icon on a display screen when the power button is pressed. The power protection unit controls a general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pin of the motherboard to output a first voltage level when the power-off simulation icon is selected, and shuts off the protection switch to enable the power button according to the first voltage level. The power protection unit controls the GPIO pin to output a second voltage level when the power-on simulation icon is selected, and turns on the protection switch to enable the power button according to the second voltage level.