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Bug Windows

Windows 7 Bug Prevents Users From Shutting Down Or Rebooting Computers (zdnet.com) 59

An anonymous reader writes: 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...

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.

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Windows 7 Bug Prevents Users From Shutting Down Or Rebooting Computers

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  • I remember years of su, synch;synch;reboot on other platforms.

    The ZDnet article has 2 examples of workarounds.

    • I remember years of su, synch;synch;reboot on other platforms.

      No you don't. It's sync. And on Linux, only one.

  • by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @05:45PM (#59705916) Homepage

    A lesson to be learned here, never load that last M$ update, it always makes things worse, they are not an honourable corporations, they are a pack o psychopaths.

    • Name a company who isn't?

      I guess we should be glad they didn't throttle the system and make some claim that its for your own good?

      • Give them time. They'll get around to it.

      • They absolutely already did.
        I remember there being a big flap about the 2016 October/November updates to Windows 7, which reduced performance, and some IT people started being very picky about which updates to install.

        The consensus back then, was that M$ was starting to erode performance on Windows 7, to push people to Windows 10.
        I never saw any updates which returned performance to what it was before.

        I'm fairly certain someone even started making a (payware) tool to uninstall the worst updates, but I don't

      • Name a company who isn't?

        GNU

        -- President of vice

    • by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @06:41PM (#59706030) Homepage
      From the parent comment: "... they are a pack o psychopaths."

      Did someone at Microsoft arrange a failure in Windows 7 because it would make more money for Microsoft? It seems that people at Microsoft lack social ability.

      Is the idea to push users to Windows 10, the worst OS in the world because of spying and many, many problems? Two of the many, many negative articles about Windows 10:

      Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. [networkworld.com] "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."

      Multiple Problems Reported With New Windows 10 Updates [forbes.com]

      Microsoft is evil [slashdot.org], someone complained.
      • by Calydor ( 739835 )

        No, they're pushing people to reach the conclusion that their computer is completely fubar and it's time to get a new one. This isn't aimed at the tech savvy, but the average guy that just has a computer because it's useful to browse the internet without getting a neck cramp. Is that guy going to realize it's a bug, and if he doesn't, is he going to be able to go and buy a new computer WITHOUT Windows 10?

        • .... is he going to be able to go and buy a new computer WITHOUT Windows 10?

          Sure. Chromebook.

          _______________________________________
          Sent from my Chromebook, running GalliumOS

        • by BranMan ( 29917 )

          Actually I just went looking for good used Windows computers. I saw a ton of them with Windows 7 installed. Maybe a little less than half of the ones I looked at.

          So you can definitely still get them.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      +1 insightful. Sorry, no mod points at the moment.

      What always gets me is that so much of this planet's computing is running on this fragile trash. At least it looks like they have mostly lost the servers, and mobile they lost a while ago.

    • With microsoft the rule was always get SP2 and then stop updating. Now that they're going subscription-only, all users are fucked.

    • I never attribute to psychopathy what can be explained by stupidity, but I suspect you're correct!

      That's why my Windows installs are mostly in VMs. I can revert to a snapshot quick as a reboot and copy them effortlessly as backups. Of course my hosts are Linux since I only use Windows when necessary.

  • by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @05:48PM (#59705924)
    Richard Stallman was right all along.
  • by BlindRobin ( 768267 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @05:52PM (#59705932)

    " Microsoft will most likely need to make a another exception and deliver a second post-EOL update pretty soon."
    Ha! Who is to say the MS is not the source of the "bug"?
    Win7 was the last version reasonably respectful of and providing a bit of user autonomy and privacy and they are desperate to kill it off.

    • You're a cynic.

      You're also way off point. How could MS *not* be the source of a bug in their product ;-)

      Win7 was the last version reasonably respectful of and providing a bit of user autonomy and privacy and they are desperate to kill it off.

      Nope, you're a tinfoil hat nutter. Cynic just doesn't cut it.

    • by stooo ( 2202012 )

      cannot reboot W7 ? Who needs to reboot Windows anyway ?

    • by Askmum ( 1038780 )
      People said that about XP too. Every new OS from Microsoft just makes it worse. I am not ashamed to say that I haven't done any patches of updates of my W7 system in years. And it still works. And I would rather run XP. I would rather run W2000, but that's really not an option anymore.
      • by BranMan ( 29917 )

        I'm in the same boat - shut off all updates around the time of the forced Windows 10 migrations. Didn't want to miss a parry and let a free "upgrade" through.

        I'd rather be on XP also - I had a work machine for heavy duty use - 16 cores, 32 GB of RAM, around the EOL of XP. That exact same computer got "upgraded" to 7 and went from screaming to poking along.

        Just unreal the performance hit it took. And the same, again, with Windows 10 - though that was my wife's computer. She missed a parry and got it infe

  • After a certain date, all sorts of things will happen

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @06:02PM (#59705956)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @06:07PM (#59705966)

      I'm a wannabe 'nerd' and haven't the knowledge of Adobe or Win7...

      You're not missing anything.

    • If you're using Adobe CC, the current version of Adobe Premiere will not even install on Windows 7.
      ( In fact, a large number of the CC apps will not install if you're not running Windows 10 though it's odd that Photoshop does )

      I would typically let the Adobe services do their thing on startup, then a batch file would trigger two minutes after logon and kill all
      the Adobe related update processes so they're not running in the background full time.

      Adobe appears to be just as forceful in getting everyone off o

      • Makes sense they are the ones driving the whole industry towards subscriber-only software. Subscriber-only OS is new hotness in 2020.

    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      If user apps can keep the OS from shutting down, the problems run MUCH deeper.

      • by HiThere ( 15173 )

        Even Linux systems are reluctant to shutdown when there are applications that refuse to quit nicely. (Firefox is the culprit I notice most often.) There's usually a way to force shutdown anyway ... though on occasion I've opted for the kill -9 command from a console. (ps is your friend.)

        I've no idea what the MSWindows equivalent is, or if there even is one.

        • by sjames ( 1099 )

          Reluctance yes. But after a timeout it kills everything. Unless systemD has changed that. I avoid system D.

    • "uninstall any adobe software" was already a basic troubleshooting technique back in Windows 3!

      Some things never change.

      • a basic troubleshooting technique back in Windows 3!

        Windows 286.

        I never used Windows 1 for long enough to get to know it's deficiencies.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Sorry (Score:4, Funny)

    by mspohr ( 589790 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @06:21PM (#59705998)

    I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.

  • Permission? (Score:5, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @07:18PM (#59706086)

    I may not have your 'permission'. But I have your plug in my hand.

  • Fragile trash (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @08:28PM (#59706178)

    If I stop updating my Linux box, it will continue to work without problems for years, probably decades. And if I configure it restrictively, it may even stay secure for that time. With MS trash, fundamental things start to break within weeks....

    • I stopped updating Win7 when MS announced they were bundling security and non-security updates together.

      System has been rock stable since then. I'm pretty sure if I kept up with updates, my machine would be a pile of gelatin by now.

  • If only there was a switch of some kind, power cable, or battery. When will they learn?!!??!?!!!11!?!1?eleven?!?!

    • Just hit the big red button that will turn things off.

    • Someone built a computer where you just turned it off the old fashioned way.

      This problem comes from my fellow programmers being blinkered idiots throwing wrappers around internal APIs rather than designing products. They have a filesystem so think in terms of exposing that, with save and delete and expunge as things the end user must learn to deal with.

      That kibitzers have an itchy trigger finger to respond to this with hows and what ifs demonstrates the buffoon nature of their thought processes.

  • by grep -v '.*' * ( 780312 ) on Saturday February 08, 2020 @11:04PM (#59706408)
    you forgot the appended word: GRACEFULLY.

    I might can't shut it down. I might can't reboot it. But I can sure as hell pull the plug, and if somehow I can't do THAT than I can hold the power button down for 5 seconds. And if I can't do THAT, there's always the power mains outside.

    No, unless it's got batteries, solar cells, and legs, I can shut it down. Maybe not the way the programmers would like, but it can be shut down. And that's only if you want to be able to bring it back up again; a permanent power-off just means that "funner" options now come into play.

    Then again, see Colossus. [wikipedia.org]
  • It's been EOL'd and knows it's living on borrowed time before the final shutdown...
  • Well, then HAVE YOUR WINDOWS 7! HOW DO YOU LIKE IT NOW, HUH? HUH??!? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
  • I was able fix it (so far) by using shutdown /r /t 0 then logged on as the local admin. Removed my profile from the local admin group restarted then added it back. No further issues at this point.
  • I have control over the OFF switch.

    And any operating system that fails to recognise that "permission" is irrelevant, needs to re-think their data integrity and filesystem design.

  • Why would M$ update that? It is a security issue. If you can't reboot, then you can't load any new software. That'll keep them virus thingies away fer sure.

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