Microsoft has quietly resolved a long-running annoyance in Windows that left the “Update and shut down” option behaving like “Update and restart” — applying updates and then bringing the PC back to the lock screen instead of powering it off.
For many Windows users, the small-but-frustrating disparity between what the UI promises and what actually happens has been a recurrent pain point. The Start menu and Windows Update offer two obvious choices when updates are pending: Update and restart and Update and shut down. The latter is meant to install updates and then power off, so a user can leave the machine and find it off the next time they return. Instead, inconsistent behavior over the past few years has sometimes produced a restart and a logged-in desktop or lock screen — forcing users to manually shut down or to wait through additional update steps.
This inconsistency was reported across threads, Microsoft community posts, Feedback Hub items, and many Reddit conversations stretching back to 2023 and earlier. The problem was intermittent — affecting some devices and configurations more than others — which turned troubleshooting into a guessing game for users and administrators.
Main points from the announcement:
Journalistic reporting and follow-ups from multiple outlets emphasized that this behavior has been noticeable since at least mid-2023 and occasionally showed up on Windows 10 as well as Windows 11. That intermittent nature — sometimes working correctly, sometimes not — is why so many users described the issue as “unreliable” rather than universal.
This patch is an important quality-of-life correction: it restores faithful behavior to a small but widely used interface action. That correction improves user trust in Windows Update and removes a persistent source of friction — provided Microsoft’s staged validation and rollout complete without regressions and enterprise policies are considered during deployment.
Source: Ореанда-Новости Microsoft fixed an old Windows bug
Background
For many Windows users, the small-but-frustrating disparity between what the UI promises and what actually happens has been a recurrent pain point. The Start menu and Windows Update offer two obvious choices when updates are pending: Update and restart and Update and shut down. The latter is meant to install updates and then power off, so a user can leave the machine and find it off the next time they return. Instead, inconsistent behavior over the past few years has sometimes produced a restart and a logged-in desktop or lock screen — forcing users to manually shut down or to wait through additional update steps. This inconsistency was reported across threads, Microsoft community posts, Feedback Hub items, and many Reddit conversations stretching back to 2023 and earlier. The problem was intermittent — affecting some devices and configurations more than others — which turned troubleshooting into a guessing game for users and administrators.
What Microsoft changed — the official fix
Microsoft included a targeted remediation in recent Insider Preview builds to address the issue. The Windows Insider release notes for Build 26120.6760 (Beta Channel) explicitly list the change: “Fixed an underlying issue which could lead ‘Update and shutdown’ to not actually shut down your PC after.” That remediation is surfaced as a servicing change in the Beta/Dev preview ring and is being validated through the Insider program before wider rollout.Main points from the announcement:
- The fix is described as an underlying orchestration/servicing change, not a cosmetic rewording.
- It is rolling out through the Windows Insider channels first (Dev and Beta) before being staged to general availability.
Why this bug mattered
This bug looks small on the surface, but it touched multiple practical areas:- Trust and UX: Users rely on the label of a button. When it doesn’t do what it says, the feature becomes untrustworthy and people stop using it. Community pushback made the option a running joke in places, but it also produced real annoyance for professionals who routinely schedule updates around work hours.
- Power and battery: Laptops left overnight with the expectation of being shut down instead stayed on after a supposed shutdown, draining battery and potentially accelerating wear for some components.
- Operational friction: For IT admins and power users, the ambiguity forced manual workarounds (manually restarting then shutting down), adding complexity to update windows and automation sequences.
- Inconsistent triage: Because the behavior was intermittent, diagnosing it required more than a single-step fix — it was hard to reproduce, which complicated both reporting and verification.
Technical context — how “Update and shut down” is supposed to work
To understand what went wrong, it helps to review what the option is intended to do:- When you select Update and shut down, Windows begins the update servicing sequence that performs pre-shutdown update tasks, applies update binaries that require a boot cycle to finalize, and then performs a true power-off (S5) so that finalization can continue on the next cold boot if necessary. In effect, Update and shut down should end with the device powered off after relevant unpacking/install steps have been performed.
- Several system behaviors and settings intersect with this flow:
- Fast Startup (hybrid shutdown) can change shutdown semantics on some devices and has historically caused update/shutdown interactions to act unexpectedly. Disabling Fast Startup can sometimes change the observed behavior.
- “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up after an update or restart” is a user setting that enables Windows to use stored credentials to complete post-restart setup automatically. If this mechanism is required but blocked or disabled (for example by Group Policy or in certain account configurations), updates that expect an automatic sign-in may behave differently.
- Updates that require multiple restart cycles or special orchestration steps occasionally need Windows to perform an automatic sign-in or follow a particular servicing flow that includes restarts before a final shutdown is possible. When orchestration logic mis-detects the required path, the result can be a restart rather than a final shutdown.
How widespread was the issue?
Quantifying how many machines were affected is difficult because Microsoft did not place a broad compatibility hold or publish a global “affected devices” count for this specific symptom. Community reports suggest the problem was widespread enough to persistently surface on forums and in Feedback Hub threads for more than two years, but also inconsistent across hardware, driver combinations, and account/organization policies.Journalistic reporting and follow-ups from multiple outlets emphasized that this behavior has been noticeable since at least mid-2023 and occasionally showed up on Windows 10 as well as Windows 11. That intermittent nature — sometimes working correctly, sometimes not — is why so many users described the issue as “unreliable” rather than universal.
What users should expect now
- The change is present in the Windows Insider Beta Channel build 26120.6760 (KB5065793) and similar Dev-channel preview builds; it is being validated with controlled rollouts. Insiders who opt in and have the “get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” toggle enabled should see the change first. Wider distribution to non-Insider consumers will follow after Microsoft confirms telemetry and feedback.
- For everyday users on stable channels: the fix will arrive as part of a cumulative update or servicing change in the coming weeks to months, depending on Microsoft’s rollout plan and telemetry results. Microsoft typically stages such servicing updates to minimize risk, which means a gradual ramp rather than a single-day push.
Practical guidance — what to do now
If you want to reduce the chance of encountering the problem before the fix reaches your PC, or if you’re troubleshooting affected machines, follow these steps.- Check your current build and update channel:
- Open Settings > System > About to confirm your Windows version and build number. If you are on the Insider Beta or Dev channels and you’ve received Build 26120.6760, the fix should already be present.
- Enable or verify the sign-in setting (may affect update orchestration):
- Go to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Additional settings, then toggle Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up after an update or restart to On. This allows Windows to use stored credentials when a restart is required to finish updates. Note: This setting may be disabled by enterprise policies on domain-joined or managed machines.
- Consider Fast Startup:
- If you see unexpected behavior, try disabling Fast Startup (Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do > Change settings that are currently unavailable > uncheck Fast Startup) and then test Update and shut down again. Fast Startup affects shutdown semantics and can interact with update flows.
- Temporary workaround for critical shutdowns:
- If you need a reliable power-off after updates and you do not want to wait for Microsoft’s staged rollout, use Update and restart and then manually choose Shut down once the system reaches the desktop, or perform a manual restart and then a shutdown. This is clumsier but avoids the uncertainty until the fix is widely deployed.
- For Insiders:
- If you’re a Windows Insider and you want to validate the fix, make sure you’re in the Beta or Dev channel with the latest flights, confirm Build 26120.6760 or later, and test the Update and shut down option on a non-critical device. Report your experience through Feedback Hub so Microsoft can gather broader telemetry.
Enterprise considerations
- Group policy and Mobile Device Management (MDM) can disable the automatic sign-in feature or otherwise change how servicing finishes after update cycles; administrators should be aware that server/desktop policies could mean some devices remain unaffected by the consumer-facing fix until specific configuration changes are made. Validate policies that control sign-in behavior and shutdown semantics before relying on the new servicing path in production.
- Test in pilot rings. As always, IT teams should test the Insider or preview fix in internal pilot rings (or wait for the gradual enterprise rollout) before deploying to broad user bases. Microsoft’s approach to controlled feature rollout means not every device will see the change at once.
- Automation and imaging. If your organization uses imaging or automated update scripts that assume a particular shutdown/reboot pattern, verify those scripts still behave as expected with the new servicing orchestration. The underlying servicing changes may affect automation that hooks into restart/shutdown events.
Analysis — strengths, risks, and remaining questions
Strengths- The fix targets the orchestration layer — the correct place to fix a symptom that stems from decision logic rather than UI. That suggests Microsoft addressed the root cause rather than applying a cosmetic label correction.
- Staged rollout through Insider Beta/Dev and the Controlled Feature Rollout mechanism is a prudent approach for a behavior that touches a wide user base. It allows telemetry-driven validation and reduced risk for large-scale problems.
- The bug persisted for more than two years for many users. That long time-to-fix highlights the difficulty of reproducing and validating intermittent state-machine bugs across an enormous variety of hardware, firmware, driver, and policy permutations. The prolonged timeline raises legitimate questions about testing coverage and prioritization for low-severity-but-high-visibility UX issues.
- Devices managed by enterprises — especially those where the “Use my sign-in info” option is disabled by policy — might still experience edge-case behavior that the consumer-targeted patch does not fully cover. Administrators should not assume universal remediation without testing.
- Fixes involving automatic sign-in behavior carry a privacy and security tradeoff: using stored credentials to finish updates can be convenient but it means the system uses cached tokens/credentials to sign in automatically. Users and admins should weigh convenience against policy and security posture. Microsoft’s documentation explains the feature and warns that organization policies can disable it.
- Microsoft’s inclusion of the fix in the Insider build notes is strong evidence the company has implemented a code change. Independent verification will come from Insiders reporting the behavior as resolved on their hardware, and ultimately from telemetry after general rollout. Historically, Microsoft has used this pattern to validate and then roll fixes to production channels, but this does depend on adequate external testing and timely user feedback.
Broader perspective — what this says about Windows servicing quality
This is one of several recent examples where non-security servicing or UX-affecting bugs have lingered and required extended fixes or careful staging. Other multi-month fixes for update-related compatibility or recovery features have surfaced in recent years, showing that the Windows servicing stack — while mature — must coordinate across drivers, OEM firmware, and a sprawling set of system services. Microsoft’s modern approach — leveraging Insider channels, feature toggles, and controlled rollouts — has benefits and trade-offs: it lets the company iterate faster, but it relies on broad community participation to catch intermittent regressions.Closing summary
Microsoft’s remediation for the “Update and shut down” inconsistency is a welcome, pragmatic fix implemented in the servicing/orchestration layer and currently rolling through Insider Beta and Dev channels as part of Build 26120.6760. Users and administrators should expect a staged rollout that reaches production channels once telemetry confirms stable behavior. In the meantime, practical workarounds — enabling the automatic sign-in finish option where policy allows, disabling Fast Startup for tests, or using Update and restart followed by manual shutdown — will reduce exposure to the intermittent restart symptom.This patch is an important quality-of-life correction: it restores faithful behavior to a small but widely used interface action. That correction improves user trust in Windows Update and removes a persistent source of friction — provided Microsoft’s staged validation and rollout complete without regressions and enterprise policies are considered during deployment.
Source: Ореанда-Новости Microsoft fixed an old Windows bug
