Windows 10 restarts on shutdown, what do I do?

Sometimes you may find that when you press "Shut down," your Windows 10 computer or laptop restarts instead of shutting down. That said, identifying the cause of the problem, especially for a novice user, is usually not easy.

This tutorial details what to do if Windows 10 restarts when shutting down, the possible causes of the problem, and how to fix the situation. Note: If what is described does not occur when "Shutdown", but when pressing the power button, which in the power settings is configured to turn off, there is a possibility that the problem is in the power supply.

Windows 10 Quick Start

The most common reason Windows 10 restarts when it shuts down is because the "Quick Start" feature is turned on. Not even that feature, it just doesn't work properly on your computer or laptop.

Try disabling fast startup, restart your computer, and see if the problem goes away.

1. Go to the Control Panel (you can start by typing "Control Panel" in the taskbar search) and open the "Power" option.
2. Click on "Power Button Action".
3. Tap "Change settings that are currently unavailable" (this requires administrator rights).
4. In the next window, the shutdown options will appear. Uncheck the "Enable fast startup" option and apply the changes.
5. Restart your computer.

After performing these steps, check if the issue is resolved. If the restart on shutdown has disappeared, you can leave it as it is (fast boot disconnected). Quick Start in Windows 10.

And you can consider the following: This problem is usually caused by a lack of power management drivers or a lack of ACPI drivers (if required), Intel Management Engine Interface, and other chipset drivers.

That being said, when it comes to the latest driver - Intel ME, a common scenario is that not the newer motherboard driver (for PC) or the laptop manufacturer's website does not cause any problems, but a newer one installed by Windows 10 automatically or from a driver package causes the quick startup to work incorrectly. That is, you can try to manually install exactly the original drivers, and the problem may not appear even if fast boot is enabled.

Restart in case of system failure

Sometimes Windows 10 may restart if a system crash occurs during shutdown. For example, it can be caused by some background program (antivirus, something else) during shutdown (which starts when the computer or laptop is turned off).

You could disable the automatic restart in case of a system crash and see if that solves the problem:

1. Go to Control Panel - System. On the left side, click Advanced system settings.
2. On the "Advanced" tab, under "Startup and Restore", click the "Options" button.
3. Uncheck the "Perform an automatic reboot" option under "System failure".
4. Apply the settings.

Then restart your computer and see if the problem has been corrected.

Fix in registry editor

Another method to fix computer or laptop restart on shutdown is to change one of the Windows 10 registry settings:

1. Press Win + R on your keyboard, type regedit, and hit Enter.
2. In the registry editor that opens, navigate to the section (folders on the left)

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon

3. In the right pane, find the parameter named Power Down After Shutdown and double click on it. Change the value from 0 to 1, save your changes, close the registry editor, and restart your computer.

After that, you can check - if Windows 10 shuts down as usual or the problem persists.

What to do if your Windows 10 computer or laptop restarts when shutting down - video tutorial

Hopefully one of the options helped. If not, in the manual Windows 10 won't turn off some additional possible reasons for restarting at power off are described and remember that the problem can also be in the power supply, and the symptoms of this usually appear beforehand (such as not turning on the first time, spontaneous shutdowns and others).