AutoEndTasks not working, Windows still requires user input

Angstony · 02 Mar 2018

This is an annoying problem that I haven't been able to solve – despite being reasonably IT-literate – so hopefully someone here can help.

I have this desktop clock application installed, that is always listed as preventing Windows from shutting down/restarting. I've carefully followed the advice given here and elsewhere, to try and get Windows to ignore such programs and proceed anyway, but nothing seems to be working. It still prompts for user input and self-cancels after a while if no action is taken.

If it helps the computer is an Acer laptop (E1-771) running Windows 10 Home with two local user accounts: my admin account and another standard user. I've added/updated all the the suggested registry entries (including the timeouts) to both users and to the default user, but nothing is working. Is there anything else I can do?

dalchina · 02 Mar 2018

If it's as troublesome as that, why not find an alternative? Note that your registry fixes are
a. potentially risky
b. likely to be overwritten on the next Windows upgrade

If you were still determined to try to use it, I suppose you could write a very very simple Autohotkey script (probably 1 line) to kill it, scheduled to run on logging off.

Brink · 02 Mar 2018

Hello Angstony, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)

If you haven't already, try the Option Two to apply AutoEndTasks to all users to see if that may help.

Turn On AutoEndTasks at Restart, Shut down, or Sign out of Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials

Angstony · 02 Mar 2018

Brink said:

If you haven't already, try the Option Two to apply AutoEndTasks to all users to see if that may help.

Hi Brink, thanks for the reply. I have already tried that.

Something I've noticed: if I add AutoEndTasks using the supplied .reg file, it is added as a string value (SV) but the manual instruction say it should be a DWORD. Not that it makes any difference as neither type seems to do the job.

dalchina said:

If it's as troublesome as that, why not find an alternative? Note that your registry fixes are
a. potentially risky
b. likely to be overwritten on the next Windows upgrade

If you were still determined to try to use it, I suppose you could write a very very simple Autohotkey script (probably 1 line) to kill it, scheduled to run on logging off.

Thanks for your reply. I've tried other clocks in the past, but I haven't found one that works as well as ClocX, which I used for years on my Windows 7 machine without any issue. Besides, it's not just the clock that's the problem here: even leaving an explorer folder open will cause Windows to prompt for user input. I want Windows 10 to behave like Windows 7 did in this respect: prompt for user input by all means, but automatically force close programs and proceed rather than cancel if none is forthcoming.

I understand the risks with registry hacks, but I have a good backup regime and I'm experienced enough to be careful with them. And if MS have (presumably) given their OS a method to implement a desired behaviour, I see no problem with using it.

I like your idea of running a script at log-off although I'm not too keen on installing AutoHotKey as I've had issues with it in the past. So I'm currently trying to do it through Task Scheduler, by invoking TaskKill with the switches /f /im clocx.exe, triggered by the log-off event, but I'm not having much success with that either at the moment, unfortunately. The task does the job but the trigger isn't firing for some reason.

Brink · 02 Mar 2018

It should be a string value.

You might contact the developer of the "ClocX" app to see if they may be able to help fix it from hanging like that.

Angstony · 02 Mar 2018

Thanks Brink. Yeah, I probably will do that. Although like I said to dalchina, this problem goes beyond that one program as even having a Windows Explorer window open prevents log off.