How in the Tech

Aborting a Windows Shutdown Operation

By Adam Myers ⋅ May 22, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Windows

Have you ever accidentally initiated a Windows shutdown operation? Typically for me it’s a result of not fully paying attention to what I am doing. Whether it’s from a Windows Update reboot request that I’ve been putting off only to have the dialog pop-up in the middle of the screen or clicking restart instead of shutdown, it’s something that happens to everyone at some point. Log off, restart, and shutdown are all controlled by a command line program aptly titled shutdown.exe. You may be interested in knowing that it is possible to call the shutdown.exe command with the argument -a can abort a misplaced shutdown earlier. As the whole process happens so quickly it’s best to create a shortcut that is easily accessible that you can execute in a split second.

1. Create a new shortcut via a right click on your desktop and select New->Shortcut, logically.



2. For the location of the item provide: C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -a



3. Name the shortcut appropriately and, if you so choose, given it an identifying icon.

As Windows reacts quickly to a shutdown request, even if you successfully abort the operation some system services or programs have already been stopped – which means your computer may not perform normally. You will want to finish whatever you were in the process of doing before the inopportune shutdown first and then perform a proper shutdown at your nearest convenience.