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I have seen Windows do some annoying things over the decades but this one takes the cake.
Windows will log you out in 5 minutes. There is no way to postpone it. There is no way to abort it. You have to click OK on the window because it takes over the screen and you cannot access anything until you. It does not check if the computer is in use. It just does it. It restarts and you have to ride it out. There was no update. There was nothing that I could see besides Windows kicking me out and restarting.
This is the worst "feature" you have ever put into Windows. Sure, go ahead and restart while I am working. It's not like my train of thought is important or anything.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
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When the number is specific like that, that means someone or some app has initiated the countdown. It can be cancelled by running the following command in a Command Prompt as Administrator:
shutdown /a
If it's for updates, the message is pretty clear that the restart is about updates.
Thanks for the command.
Yes, I am familiar with the updates restart. It allows you to postpone it. This one simply said that Windows will log you out in 5 minutes. I did notice that Windows Defender updated silently in the background shortly before this. I found that in the maintenance log. Since it was within minutes of the forced shutdown, I am going to assume that is what caused the restart.
@MarkInKent, yeah it just popped up right in the middle of working. The longest period of being idle would be no more than the time it took to get a coffee. I have never seen this before and I have used windows since 3.11.
Odd one. I use a domain managed account all day long and don't have an enforced logout such as that. Likewise my home MS account based devices don't have this.
What type of account are you using to log into the laptop? And is this a prompt that is just coming up when you're in the middle of working (ie: active) on the laptop or after a period of inactivity?
