Windows is a fantastically complicated piece of software, and there are literally millions of ways in which it can go wrong. But one of the more persistent ones over the last few years has been a shutdown issue that’s probably annoyed you at least once, if not multiple times. In Windows 10 and Windows 11, the shutdown command was borked after an update cycle. It looks like that’s finally been fixed.
According to the changelog from Microsoft, the issue would occur specifically after downloading and applying a Windows update, then selecting “Update and shutdown.” Instead of fully shutting down the PC, it would reboot (which is also an option in that menu). This is a mild headache for desktop users, but a much more pressing problem for a laptop user who might finish the update process and throw their machine in their bag only to find later that it’s been sitting in there and cooking itself on a login screen. Dozens of other changes came in the optional update, including taskbar tweaks and an upgraded Start menu.
The shutdown issue fix should apply to Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2, with the optional non-security update rolling out approximately a week ago. It’ll be sent out in the not-so-optional update starting next week on November 11th, according to Windows Latest. It is not applied to Windows 10 despite reports of the issue still being present on that operating system. I’m sure Microsoft is convincing a lot of people to upgrade any minute now.
