Windows 7 bug preventing users from shutting down their systems

Microsoft Windows 7 has a bug which is preventing users from shutting down their PCs. Multiple Windows 7 users have reported this issue which can only be fixed with some tiresome workarounds. There's also no update on how the bug came up.

Windows 7 systems affected by this bug are unable to shut down or reboot their PCs. Whenever users try to turn off their PC a message is flashed saying, "You don't have permission to shut down this computer."

According to a report by ZDNet, Windows 7 users have been facing this issue for two days now. Some users on Reddit have shared workarounds on turning off PCs. One way is to create another admin account, log into that account and log back into the default admin account. Users should be able to shut down or reboot their systems after this.

There's another workaround which is supposed to be a fix for this bug and it comes from Quick Heal support.

"This could be caused by 'User Account Control'. There are distinct policies governing 'UAC' behavior, one for built-in Administrator account while another is for all other administrative users. By default, 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," Quick Heal explains.

Here are the steps Windows 7 users can follow to fix this bug.

1.Press Windows+R to open the Run window.

2.Type gpedit.msc in the text bar.

3.Then open Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.

4.From the right panel, select User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode.

5.Then select enable and click OK to apply changes.

6.Restart the computer by opening the Run window and typing "shutdown -r".

Following this process should fix the problem for now. But the source of this bug is still unknown. It becomes even more difficult because Microsoft no longer supports Windows 7. Microsoft ended all support for Windows 7 last month. Users who are still on Windows 7 are advised to upgrade to Windows 10 or similar bugs can occur in the future.