Win10 does not shut down, shutdown.exe not working

Question

So for a few days I can't shut down Win10 anymore. I've searched around quite a lot but haven't found a solution that works, so posting here as my last resort:

1. The shutdown button on the win10 menu does nothing at all. I click it, nothing happens.

2. I tried shutdown via shutdown /s /t 0 (and a few other arguments) but nothing happens at all. I can just ctrl+c to exit out of the shutdown program.

3. I logged off and used shutdown from the login screen. This gets me to a 'shutting down' spinner, but again, nothing happens and I have to hard reboot after a while.

Now I tried all the things that are usually recommended, ie disable hibernation (did that a long time ago) and disable fast boot. I ran chkdsk, sfc and dism, both from within windows and from the boot terminal and no problems can be found. I'm not on an intel chipset so cannot try https://superuser.com/a/959619/727973

--EDIT: It will shut down properly in safe mode --

Hoping someone has come across something similar before and can point me in the right direction, I really want to avoid setting up windows again ...

Solution 1

Copy the following text: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 0

Right-click your Windows desktop and select New > Shortcut.

In the Create Shortcut dialog that opens, paste the text into Type the location of the item.

Click Next and name the shortcut "Shutdown".

To shut down the Windows 10 system, double-click the new Shutdown shortcut.

Solution 2

You can try out these methods:

Method 1: Disabling Scheduled Tasks

1. Press the Windows+R keys
2. Type taskschd.msc, then press Enter
3. Navigate to the Task Scheduler Library.
4. Select everything and disable them.

Method 2: Disabling Shutdown Scripts with Local Group Policy Editor

If you have at least Windows 10 Pro, you can try this:

1. Press the Windows+R keys
2. Type gpedit.msc, then press Enter
3. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts > Shutdown.
4. Select everything and remove them.

If you only have Windows 10 Home, you can try this to enable the Local Group Policy Editor: https://www.itechtics.com/easily-enable-group-policy-editor-gpedit-msc-in-windows-10-home-edition/

Comments

[I say Reinstate Monica]

Use Microsoft/SysInternals Autoruns to disable startup items loaded in Normal mode, then add them back a few at a time until you find the one(s) preventing your machine from shutting down properly.

[Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style]

Try it with the "forceful" /f switch so shutdown /f /s /t 0... Let me know if it works.

[Geotob]

I did try /f before, just tried again to no avail.. still going through @Twisty's recommendation, will update the post if any luck

[Geotob]

Unsatisfactory update: After disabling almost all startup items and services except system critical services I still wasn't able to reboot. Used system reset in the end, everything is working again now, but it feels like admitting defeat :(

[JosefZ]

What about shutdown /s /t 1 run from elevated command prompt? Timeout of /t 0 might fail sometimes…

[Kitet]

I remember one software which was preventing windows shutdown on one computer - it was NoIP DUC. As soon as I shutdown that app all returned to normal. Every time. Do you have it running? Or maybe you can kill every process after process and see if somewhere along the way will it shutdown? I mean if one piece of software can do it, surely there are others...