Windows 7 Bug Not Allowing Users to Shutdown or Restart PCs

Just last month Microsoft has released a fix for an error in Windows 7 that made the screen turn black.

Windows 7 security update was stopped by the company from 14 January.

(Photo: The Quint)

If you’re currently working on Windows 7 (which you’re advised to upgrade immediately) and experiencing errors that do not allow you to shut the computer down or restart it, you’re another victim of a new bug that’s been corrupting the operating system.

Many Windows 7 users have reported about seeing an error that reads “You don't have permission to shut down this computer" which pops up every time they try to shut down the computer.

As of now, nobody has been able to find the cause of the bug.

Support for Windows 7 was discontinued by Microsoft in January this year which means updates and fixes for the operating system are no longer available. Considering this, will Microsoft even fix this error?

Apparently, the last update of Windows 7 from Microsoft had a bug which resulted in the screen of laptops and PCs turning into black, with the wallpaper settings causing some issue. Later, Microsoft released a fix for the error.

The error that pops up when trying to shut down the computer. (Photo: Trendswoodcom/Twitter)

As per a thread we saw on Quick Heal, which is a cybersecurity firm and makers of antivirus tools, this problem has been caused by some error in ‘User Account Control’ (UAC).

“By default, the built-in Administrator account is not affected by ‘UAC’, while all other administrative users are; thus, it’s possible for an administrative user (different from the built-it Administrator) to not get administrative rights, even if it’s a member of Administrator’s group,” as suggested by Quick Heal in its post.

In addition to this, there’s a simple walkaround that has been posted by a user on Reddit which can be executed by any Windows 7 user. The only problem is that they’ll have to go through these following steps before shutting down their systems.

Disclaimer: This is just a workaround and not a fix.

• Step 1: Create another admin account.
• Step 2: Log into that account (or any other account you’ve already had in that system)
• Step 3: Log back into the default admin account.
• Step 4: Shut down or reboot manually.

There is a long thread by Quick Heal that shows that there are various ways to tackle this problem. You can find the fixes here.