Windows 7 users, and they number to the millions, were made to deal with an annoying bug anew weeks after Microsoft had officially declared the operating system obsolete. Affected users went to online forums to share that their systems running on the OS will not shut down or restart.
When trying to turn off a machine, instead of starting the process, a dialogue box pops up and announces that "you don't have permission to shut down this computer." The bug is just another proof that Windows 7 is no longer convenient to use and more so it is vulnerable to glitches.
However, since the OS remains in use by a significant number of people and enterprises around the world, Microsoft might just have to deploy a solution one last time. As of writing, the fix is not yet available.
It's a good thing though that a number of savvy users came up with a temporary solution, which Engadget said calls for the running of the system's Group Policy Editor and from there force the granting of permission.
It remains unknown what is causing the issue, and there reports the use of third-party could be the culprit. Microsoft said in a statement that a probe is now underway to shed light on the OS flaw, but there is no word yet on what is the company's next move on the matter.
Sending out a patch could be the logical answer to correcting the system flaw, but that will be definitive when the so-called Microsoft investigation has been concluded.
In any case, a quick fix was shared via Reddit and PC Mag the straightforward procedure does the trick. It merely involves creating a new account with admin privileges and logging into that afterward.
Then users can then login to the default admin account, wherein shutting down or restarting should no longer be an issue. This workaround should work for most users, but another solution provides a more technical approach, as found below and courtesy of the same report from PC Mag:
1. Press 'Windows' and 'R' keys together to open a run window
2. Type 'gpedit.msc' and click 'OK'
3. Go to 'Computer Configuration' > 'Windows Settings' > 'Security Settings' > 'Local Policies' > 'Security Options'
4. In the right-side panel, double-click 'User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode' and select 'Enable'
5. Reopen the run window and type 'gpupdate /force'
6. Shut down or restart as usual
Until Microsoft issues a permanent fix on this latest Windows 7 bug, this technical workaround currently serves as the available solution. And while waiting for Microsoft's next move, it should be wise to ponder on making the jump finally to Windows 10, which for Windows 7 users with compatible hardware is still a free upgrade.
