This tells your PC to power itself off physically. RELATED: Shutting Down Doesn't Fully Shut Down Windows 10 (But Restarting Does) Windows Shuts Off Your PCįinally, Windows sends an ACPI shutdown signal to your PC. All the software has been cleanly shut down, and all your data is saved to disk.

When everything is done, Windows will cleanly unmount your solid-state drive or hard drive, waiting for an “all clear” signal that indicates all the system’s data has been saved to the physical disk. The next time you start your PC, Windows can reload the saved kernel and boot up more quickly, skipping the slower hardware initialization process. Windows 10 will save the state of your Windows kernel to disk, too. The service then has 20 seconds to clean up and shut down before Windows forcibly shuts it down. After the services have been warned, they receive a SERVICE_ACCEPT_SHUTDOWN message. Specifically, it sends the SERVICE_ACCEPT_PRESHUTDOWN message to any running services. Windows tells any system services and its own processes to shut down cleanly, saving any necessary data to disk. RELATED: Windows Registry Demystified: What You Can Do With It Windows Shuts Itself DownĪfter Windows finishes signing out any users, it only has itself to shut down.

If you’re shutting down or restarting, Windows continues the shutdown process If you’re just signing out, Windows returns you to the sign-in screen so you can sign in as another user.

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