I use a shortcut to the Window 11 Shutdown routine, to shut down the
computer as it is quicker that right clicking to find it on in the Start
menu.

Recently when using the Shutdown routine the computer appears to
shutdown but does not: screen goes blank and the computer will not
respond to the keys, but the power button light is still lit. Holding
the Power Button for several seconds completes the shutdown.

Has MS modified the shutdown routine that is called when "Shutdown"

Using the shortcut to the Shutdown routine has for years responded the
same as if I right click on the Start button find the shutdown options,
and then click Shutdown. Recently it occasionally done as described above.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 5/29/26 12:29 PM, knuttle wrote:

I use a shortcut to the Window 11 Shutdown routine, to shut down the
computer as it is quicker that right clicking to find it on in the Start menu.

Recently when using the Shutdown routine the computer appears to
shutdown but does not: screen goes blank and the computer will not
respond to the keys, but the power button light is still lit. Holding
the Power Button for several seconds completes the shutdown.

Has MS modified the shutdown routine that is called when "Shutdown"

Using the shortcut to the Shutdown routine has for years responded the
same as if I right click on the Start button find the shutdown options,
and then click Shutdown. Recently it occasionally done as described above.

I do the same thing, kinda. I use Rainmeter. It allows you to put what looks like the
old widgets in win95 or win7. I have a clock, HD volumes, and a shutdown/sleep/restart
button trio. Still it's nothing more than what a shortcut would do and these are the 3
commands that get used:

SleepCmd=rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Standby RestartCmd=shutdown.exe -r -t 0
ShutdownCmd=shutdown.exe -s -t 0


--
Mint 22.3, Thunderbird 140.11.0esr, Firefox 151.0.1
Alan K.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Alan K. <alan@invalid.com> wrote:
[...]

I do the same thing, kinda. I use Rainmeter. It allows you to put
what looks like the old widgets in win95 or win7. I have a clock, HD volumes, and a shutdown/sleep/restart button trio. Still it's
nothing more than what a shortcut would do and these are the 3
commands that get used:

SleepCmd=rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Standby

FYI, on modern systems with 'Modern Standby' ("Standby (S0 Low Power
Idle) Network Connected"), this command will do a Hibernate, not a
Sleep.

AFAIK, it's not possible to do a Sleep from a command in a shortcut on
such a system. (I wish it was, because clicking a shortcut is easier
than doing Start -> Power icon -> Sleep).

RestartCmd=shutdown.exe -r -t 0
ShutdownCmd=shutdown.exe -s -t 0

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 5/29/2026 12:29 PM, knuttle wrote:

I use a shortcut to the Window 11 Shutdown routine, to shut down the computer as it is quicker that right clicking to find it on in the Start menu.

Recently when using the Shutdown routine the computer appears to shutdown but does not: screen goes blank and the computer will not respond to the keys, but the power button light is still lit.ÿ Holding the Power Button for several seconds completes the shutdown.

Has MS modified the shutdown routine that is called when "Shutdown"

Using the shortcut to the Shutdown routine has for years responded the same as if I right click on the Start button find the shutdown options, and then click Shutdown.ÿÿ Recently it occasionally done as described above.

Perhaps you have added something recently, which is a bit
too clever for the computer. They use Autoruns from Sysinternals here,
for a look at what is kicking around on the PC.

https://superuser.com/questions/1447752/windows-10-black-screen-on-shutdown-reboot

The download is here.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

Debugging these, is about as much fun as debugging a "freeze in mid-session".
A lot of explaining, not a lot of solutions. That is why the autoruns, or at least
reversing some recent addition, comes to mind. I would be easy to blame your
AV program... because quite often they are guilty of doing stuff.

When you "tick" an Autoruns box for a program, the program can put itself back and
so you end up "ticking" the program again to try and stop it. Just be aware that autoruns only works "well" on naive programs. If someone has loaded a Scheduled Task to make the thing a startup item, then it will keep getting to run.

*******

Summary: Try alt-F4 after giving the desktop surface the focus.
See if shutdown works from there. This is unlikely to change anything,
but it is relatively easy to try. Otherwise, there aren't a lot of options,
and a Repair Install is unlikely to help (anyone who makes pests like this,
will have protected their creation from Repair Install as a solution).

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/shutdown-options-windows-11.jpg

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 29/05/2026 20:12, Frank Slootweg wrote:

Alan K. <alan@invalid.com> wrote:
[...]

I do the same thing, kinda. I use Rainmeter. It allows you to put
what looks like the old widgets in win95 or win7. I have a clock, HD
volumes, and a shutdown/sleep/restart button trio. Still it's
nothing more than what a shortcut would do and these are the 3
commands that get used:

SleepCmd=rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Standby

FYI, on modern systems with 'Modern Standby' ("Standby (S0 Low Power
Idle) Network Connected"), this command will do a Hibernate, not a
Sleep.

AFAIK, it's not possible to do a Sleep from a command in a shortcut on such a system. (I wish it was, because clicking a shortcut is easier
than doing Start -> Power icon -> Sleep).

RestartCmd=shutdown.exe -r -t 0
ShutdownCmd=shutdown.exe -s -t 0

Windows key+X, then U, and another U. That's in an english Windows.
Different letters with other languages.

--
Jesper

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 5/29/26 2:12 PM, Frank Slootweg wrote:

Alan K. <alan@invalid.com> wrote:
[...]

I do the same thing, kinda. I use Rainmeter. It allows you to put
what looks like the old widgets in win95 or win7. I have a clock, HD
volumes, and a shutdown/sleep/restart button trio. Still it's
nothing more than what a shortcut would do and these are the 3
commands that get used:

SleepCmd=rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Standby

FYI, on modern systems with 'Modern Standby' ("Standby (S0 Low Power
Idle) Network Connected"), this command will do a Hibernate, not a
Sleep.

AFAIK, it's not possible to do a Sleep from a command in a shortcut on such a system. (I wish it was, because clicking a shortcut is easier
than doing Start -> Power icon -> Sleep).

RestartCmd=shutdown.exe -r -t 0
ShutdownCmd=shutdown.exe -s -t 0

I never use the sleep thus I've never noticed it working or not. I also turned off the
hibernation.
I use it for reboot. The lid close does a sleep.

--
Mint 22.3, Thunderbird 140.11.0esr, Firefox 151.0.1
Alan K.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

knuttle <keith_nuttle@yahoo.com> wrote:

I use a shortcut to the Window 11 Shutdown routine, to shut down the computer ...

And that shortcut runs WHAT command? If using the shutdown.exe program,
it has many command-line parameters on how to shutdown. Run:

shutdown /?

to see the list of arguments that can be passed to the program. For
example, maybe one of your open programs refuses or is deaf to the
shutdown request sent to it by the OS, so it continues running, and
interferes with shutdown. The /f argument, or /t with a timeout, will
force exit of all pending processes. I'd probably go with /t to give
processes a 30-second timeout for them to gracefully exit, but kill them
if they won't respond.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.15
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)