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Recent Win 11 update causes some PCs to refuse to shut down or hibernate
Just a minor issue!
From the article: "The bug appears to be tied to Secure Launch, a security feature that uses virtualization-based protections to ensure only trusted components load during boot. On systems with Secure Launch enabled, attempts to shut down, restart, or hibernate after applying the January patches may fail to complete. From the user's perspective, everything looks normal – until the PC keeps running anyway, refusing to be denied life.
Microsoft says that entering the command "shutdown /s /t 0" at the command prompt will, in fact, force your PC to turn off, whether it wants to or not."
It hasn't affected my two Win 11 computers, haven't powered up my laptop in a month, so it hasn't updated. I would expect this will be updated with next month's Patch Tuesday release, but they may release an out of schedule patch to fix it.
Of course, make sure all your documents are saved before issuing that shutdown command or you may risk losing information.
And all computers will shut down when you pull the plug out of the wall or bus strip.
https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/16/patch_tuesday_secure_launch_bug_no_shutdown/
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/16/2144202/patch-tuesday-update-makes-windows-pcs-refuse-to-shut-down
From the article: "The bug appears to be tied to Secure Launch, a security feature that uses virtualization-based protections to ensure only trusted components load during boot. On systems with Secure Launch enabled, attempts to shut down, restart, or hibernate after applying the January patches may fail to complete. From the user's perspective, everything looks normal – until the PC keeps running anyway, refusing to be denied life.
Microsoft says that entering the command "shutdown /s /t 0" at the command prompt will, in fact, force your PC to turn off, whether it wants to or not."
It hasn't affected my two Win 11 computers, haven't powered up my laptop in a month, so it hasn't updated. I would expect this will be updated with next month's Patch Tuesday release, but they may release an out of schedule patch to fix it.
Of course, make sure all your documents are saved before issuing that shutdown command or you may risk losing information.
And all computers will shut down when you pull the plug out of the wall or bus strip.
https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/16/patch_tuesday_secure_launch_bug_no_shutdown/
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/16/2144202/patch-tuesday-update-makes-windows-pcs-refuse-to-shut-down
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As Scotty said, 'The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the works.' Windows is a very complicated operating system, and it sometimes can fail quite spectacularly. I remember a friend of mine who had what I believe is the most spectacular failure that I've ever seen. Something happened in his registry and any time you clicked on any icon or tried to do anything on his computer, it said you had to have admin permissions to do it. And he was the only user. There were two really big problems. He was running a really old version of Windows: it would be the equivalent of running Vista or Win 7 today. And he didn't have a router: he was plugged in directly to his cable modem, so his computer was completely exposed to the internet. I tried reinstalling the old OS, and literally as I was installing it, it was being compromised by automatic bots looking for machines to take over. Finally had to go out and buy the latest version of Windows, unplug the machine, install the new OS, and at that point it was strong enough to resist the automatic take-overs. I think he also got himself a router once I explained how vulnerable he was. This was long before everyone had smart phones and laptops.
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I prefer hibernate over sleep personally, especially for laptops as the deeper suspend level gives you longer battery life. I doubt there's much difference for desktop/tower PCs.
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Hugs, Jon