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  2. A shut down may take considerably longer in Windows 7 if it was previously cancelled

A shut down may take considerably longer in Windows 7 if it was previously cancelled

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Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

  • You have a computer running Windows 7 and the power button has been configured in Control Panel Power Options to shut down the machine.
  • An application is opened with unsaved work. For example, Microsoft Word is open with an unsaved document.
  • You press the computer's power button to shut down Windows and power off the computer.
  • Windows displays a force shut down dialog listing all programs that are preventing Windows from shutting down.
  • You click on Cancel to abort the shut down and then go back and save your work in the open application.

In this scenario, the next time you try to shut down the computer using the power button, it may take considerably longer than normal before shut down completes and the computer is powered off.


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Cause

If an application is preventing Windows from shutting down (ex. unsaved work), Windows will wait a period of 60 seconds at the force shut down dialog before forcing the application to close so shut down can continue. If the user cancels out of the force shutdown dialog, Windows still retains the 60 second timeout value. As a result, the next time a shut down occurs, even if there are no blocking applications, shut down will be delayed until the timeout value expires.

This behavior only occurs when configuring the power button to shut down the machine. When shutting down Windows through the Start Menu, the problem does not occur as the timeout value is not retained when cancelling out of the forced shutdown dialog.

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Resolution

To work around this issue, use the shut down option from the Windows Start Menu instead. 


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Keywords: kb

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Article Info
Article ID : 2719667
Revision : 1
Created on : 1/7/2017
Published on : 5/31/2012
Exists online : False
Views : 227