steven36 Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Another major bug hits Windows 7 after the January 14 end-of-life (EOL) deadline. A weird bug of unknown origins has been hitting Windows 7 computers this week, according to multiple reports online. Windows 7 users have been reporting that they are receiving a popup message that reads "You don't have permission to shut down this computer" every time they attempt to shut down or reboot their systems. The cause of the bug remains unknown at the time of writing. For the past two days, users have been scratching their heads for solutions around the problem. The good news is that they've found at least least one temporary workaround and one unofficial fix to resolve the issue. The temporary workaround A simple workaround was found by a user on Reddit. The workaround doesn't require any scripting or OS system hacks, and could be executed by any Windows 7 user. The downside is that they have to go through these steps every time they wish to shut down or reboot their PCs. Step 1: Create another admin account. Step 2: Log into that account (or another admin account that was already on the system). Step 3: Log back into the default admin account. Step 4: Shut down or reboot normally. "This isn't a solution tho, just a workaround," the user warned on Reddit. The unofficial fix A more permanent way to go around this bug has been put forward by several users on Reddit and by IT support firm Quick Heal. The fix has been confirmed to work by numerous users and goes like this: Step 1: Press Windows+R to open the Run window. Step 2: Type gpedit.msc and press Enter. Step 3: In the Group Policy Editor window go to: Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options. Step 4: In the right panel of the Security Options option,search and double-click on "User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode." Step 5: In the new window, select Enable. Step 6: Reopen the Run window, but this time type "gpupdate /force" and press Enter. This will update all group policies. Step 7: Restart or shut down your system normally. Windows 7 reached official end of life (EOL) on January 14, 2020 and is not scheduled to receive new fixes. Last month, Microsoft made an exception to this rule when it provided a fix for a bug that broke wallpaper display for Windows 7 users. Seeing that rebooting or shutting down your computer is a more important OS feature than wallpaper support, Microsoft will most likely need to make a another exception and deliver a second post-EOL update pretty soon. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 Some Windows 7 users may be surprised to find that the operating system suddenly shuts down or restarts. The operation is rejected because of missing permissions (You do not have permission to shutdown this computer). I had already seen this the night at askwoody.com, but then I was asked by mail (thanks for that) and via Twitter from my German readers if I heard about that. It seems that many Windows 7 users are suddenly affected. First it has been posted at reddit.com here and here. The error description The affected users will receive an error message when trying to shut down or restart Windows 7. You do not have permission to shutdown this computer Windows 7 refuses the operation. On Twitter someone posted this tweet with a screenshot of it. You don’t have permission to shutdown this computer- Windows 7 This error is preventing me to shutdown or restart my PC from yesterday ♂️♂️♂️ pic.twitter.com/JOXymOQYTI — Trendswood (@Trendswoodcom) February 7, 2020 In the Microsoft Answers Forum, on February 6, 2020, you can find this thread where someone describes the error. On reddit.com someone describes this as follows: Don’t have permission to shutdown End of day I received a few calls with this error. Don’t see anything in event logs. After log off and reboot same issue. Doing a gpupdate in pc seemed to fix issue for now. Worried end of day Friday I may get a ton off calls Has anyone else run into this? If you search for this error on the Internet, there are many of hits – some of them from 2013 and earlier. So this is not a new bug – it’s just odd that it’s appearing right now. And it seems to have hit a number of Windows 7 users. Workarounds and Fixes It seems to me that the permissions for the user account have been broken there. Here are a few hints, what you can do, if you are affected Fix #1: Adobe Genuine Monitor Service Are you using Adobe Creative Cloud or do you have had Adobe stuff installed on your machine? In this case, the following hint it hot for you. I have read several times (here and here), that Adobe uses a service ‘Adobe Genuine Monitor Service’ (part of the Adobe Creative Cloud) and that there was an update on February 3, 2020. A user disabled the service, rebooted and the problem was fixed. He can now shut down again via the Start menu. Another administrator advised his users to use the shutdown workaround outlined in Fix 3 below. In MS Answers there is also the hint for the crypt32.dll update – and at askwoody.com is this post mentioned that. However, I consider this update to be less valid (see my post at askwoody), as this update for the cryptography vulnerability has only been distributed to Windows 10 (see this Microsoft document). Addendum: After writing this article, I found this comments at Bleeping Computer. It proves my theory, that the Adobe Service is causing the culprit. Fix #2:Check Group Policy Settings In case the ‘Adobe thing’ didn’t fit, the next thing you could check, are group policy settings. Under Windows 7 Pro, Ultimate and Enterprise, you should try the following steps: 1. Type the command ggpedit.msc in the search box of the Start menu and then start the Group Policy Editor via the the Start menu entry shown using the context menu command Run as administrator and confirm the execution using User Account Control. 2. In group policy editor navigate within the left pane to Computer Settings > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options. 3. Search in the right pane the policy User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin approval, double click and activate it. Afterwards, an administrative command prompt window can be invoked. Enter the command: gpupdate /force to force the adoption of the policy change (since a restart is not possible). The above approach is described in a similar form in this article, at Bleeping Computer, and is referenced on reddit.com. Note: Group Policy Editor isn’t available on Windows 7 Home Edition. Also the advice given in many articles to use Windows+R to launch the Run dialog box has some caveats. It just works, if someone is using an administrator account. Otherwise, UAC credentials are missing and gpedit.msc fails. Use the steps I outlined above to gain administrative credentials via UAC. For users of Windows 7 Home and Starter, you can use the registry editor to make adjustments. The key is: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System Set the DWORD value EnableLUA to 1. This is described here. Fix #3: Try Ctrl+Alt+Del There are users, such as here, , who specify to press the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Del. In the Lock Computer page that appears, there is a button in the lower right corner to shut down Windows 7. Try there to see if that still works. The colleagues at Bleeping Computer have mentioned another workaround here in the form of deleting accounts and profiles. The same can be found from Catalin Cimpan at ZDnet. But I guess that the above mentioned Adobe service is the bad guy. Any of you affected who can tell us more? Sidenote: Some seem to think Adobe services is causing it not to reboot if you use there software . so i posted the fix and more above. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mp68terr Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 While waiting for an official fix, if any: what about pushing the ON/OFF switch for a couple of seconds to shutdown the computer? Has this simple thing been tried? Always worked so far, and not restricted to win7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erp-ster0 Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Read this & the comments from Born's Tech and Windows World blog: https://borncity.com/win/2020/02/08/windows7-prevents-shutdown-restart-feb-2020/ Quote Addendum: It seems to me, that an Adobe CC update from early Feb. 2020 (or for similar software) is causing this behavior. I’ve rewritten parts of the ‘Adobe service’ section, to make things a bit more clear. And there are signs, that Bitdefender Total Security 2020 may cause also this behavior – hope that helps. Quote Addendum 5: At Bleeping Computer this user claims, that BitDefender Total Security 2020 is causing this symptoms. An update has been pushed at Feb. 6, 2020, that may cause this issue. Somebody can confirm that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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