"Windows will shut down in less than a minute" on startup and at random times

[waughetoughe baughetoughle]

Hello, steam community, I have a serious issue with my computer that makes turning it on and using it a nuisance. Basically, as soon as I start up the computer and log on I get a window that pops up saying "You are about to be logged off. Windows will shut down in less than a minute" and then, if I'm not able to stop the shutdown in time via the "Run" menu, it shuts down completely. This also happens at other random times when I'm using the computer (this is after I am able to stop the first shutdown). It has been doing this since I built the PC last feburary and nothing I have tried has worked. I looked all over the internet to fix my solution and nothing has helped. I have read, however, that this issue can stem from over using a 30-day free trial of windows, which I have done in the past when I had windows 7. However, only about 3 days after the trial ended I upgraded to Windows 10 using a product key and activated it, yet it still gives me the shutdown window. Does anyone know a fix to this? I will give all the info I can about my PC if needed.


Thank you

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Just reinstall Win10 fresh; updating from one to the other probably the issue.

Win10 you can use freely anyways.

[oobymach]

It's a virus, you can either stop the process in task manager (quick load it with ctrl + shift + esc) or try to get into task manager and identify and stop the task. Had that once with win xp, was a pain but after a few tries I got it.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Best bet is start with reinstall Win10; get that from Microsoft first on a clean PC.
https://www.microsoft.com/en/software-download/windows10

Make bootable usb flash drive with that ^
Boot from it on your troubled PC and reinstall Win10. Everything else on that drive will be move to C:\Windows_Old when you do. Once reinstalled, play around with the OS as-is, see if the same issue continues. If so, yea it might be time to secure wipe that drive and start over.

[Black Mambo № 5]

It may not even be a virus to be honest. I have had my friend run some random bat file in my PC while I wasn't noticing. Basically created a bat file to run everytime at login and shutdown the PC in 90 secs, and placed it in the Startup Folder. People do that on public computers etc. just "for the LULZ".

That could very well be the case in your situation as well, or somewhat similar to that. Viruses aren't all that silly. They'll either lock you out completely or damage your file system in one way or the other which would require re-installing windows. Doesn't seem that severe to me.

Since you mention you can kill the shutdown before it triggers, it is a clear indication that whatever is triggering it isn't access blocked at least. Normally virus files & processes are access blocked or self-executing(almost instantaneously) thereby preventing you from deleting or killing them completely.

When you try to close the shutdown command, take a look quickly at what is triggering it. I'm using Win 7 so for me I can check the process location in Task Manager itself, I dunno what that would be in Win 10 but it should in all likeliness be in the Task Manager as well. Either that, or after you have killed the shutdown command, check the Windows Event Log, that'll give you an idea what's triggering the shutdown. Taking a look at Task Scheduler can also be an option. I use Task Scheduler to put a shutdown timer on my PC based on certain events.

If that doesn't work just re-install the OS.

[waughetoughe baughetoughle]

Thank you guys for all the replies. It gave a bit more glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, however, I was not able to solve the problem despite the numerous fixes I've tried (I just tried all of these). So, does anyone have any more solutions before I just give up and format my hard drive / thow my computer against the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wall? lmao


Thanks again to everyone who replied. ;)

[lastblade.1]

frayed they may be right on the reload. if your trial version went over the due date and you upgraded, it didnt necessarily clear the demo files, jsut wrote over what it needed to, leaving the rest.(like the shutdown code.) unless you can get it to stay on long enough to find/disable that you are looking at a reload. nope, no idea where that little pita would be unfortunately. have you tried safe mode? might let you at least dig a little if it is something additional forcing the shutdown.

verify and make sure you have a copy of the windows code too. good habit no matter what you decide to do.

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

there is no shutdown code for trial version of windows 10 rtm.

the only version that had expiry dates was windows 10 preview before its official release on july 29, 2015

if i were you and you had an extra empty hdd, i'd clean install windows 10 on that drive, install antivirus, malwarebytes, and spybot. afterwards, scan/copy important files from old drive to new windows 10 installation drive and wipe old drive.

if you have a single drive, then you have a choice to start clean (wipe the drive before use, clean installation) or reuse the drive (in-place installation) as is.