Microsoft says irritating update and shutdown bug has been wiped from Windows 11

Like many people, you’ve probably put off installing Windows 11 updates because you need to get on with something else. And if at the end of the day you have selected the “Update and Shut Down” option in the Start menu, you may well have questioned yourself when Windows chose to restart instead.

But this was not you; it was Microsoft’s fault. The company has just admitted to the long-standing issue while quietly fixing the bug that has irritated users for a surprisingly long time.

With two options in the Start menu being right next to each other – “Update and Shut Down” and “Update and Restart” – it was easy to select the option to shut down after updating and come to the conclusion that your finger had slipped and you had accidently selected the restart option instead. But the blame lies with Microsoft, so stop beating yourself up.

The fix has been slipped into the KB5067036 update for Windows 11, which is a preview version of the November cumulative update which is due for release later in the month.

In the release notes for this update, Microsoft hardly draws attention to the inclusion of this fix, adding a brief reference to the very bottom of the list of changes and fixes. In the release notes for the KB5067036 update, the company says:

• [Windows Update] 
  • Improved: Addressed underlying issue which can cause “Update and shutdown” to not actually shut down your PC after updating.
  • Improved: Addressed underlying issue which can cause Windows Update to fail to install with error 0x800f0983.

There are a few things that are interesting here. Firstly, Microsoft is giving away very little, and the nod to acknowledging the problem’s existence is a very small one.

Secondly, there is no explanation given about what was causing the problem. But the third thing that is curious is the fact that the fix is included in the “Gradual rollout” section of the release notes for the update. For reasons that Microsoft is keeping to itself, the fix is not being delivered to everyone at once – which is a bit weird.

There is something else worth mentioning. The KB5067036 update is for Windows 11, but Windows 10 is affected by the exact same problem. With this older operating system having reached the end of support, Microsoft will not be fixing the bug for Windows 10 users.

What about the extended update program? This update and shutdown bug is not seen as being a security issue, so Microsoft will not do anything to help Windows 10 users in this instance.

Image Credit: Simon Lehmann / Dreamstime.com