On January 13th, Microsoft released a comprehensive update for Windows 11, known as the first Patch Tuesday of the year. However, after installing update KB5073455, some PCs may experience problems that prevent them from shutting down.
Microsoft has already documented this as a known issue. According to the note, affected PCs simply restart instead of shutting down. Hibernation mode is also affected. There’s currently no solution.
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Who’s affected?
According to Microsoft, devices running Windows 11 23H2 that use System Guard Secure Launch are affected. This tool is meant to protect Windows systems from potential threats during the startup process, similar to Secure Boot.
It’s worth noting that Windows 11 23H2 has been officially unsupported since November 2025, with the exception of Enterprise and IoT editions of the operating system. However, there are apparently still enough PCs using this version for reports of the error to surface.
What can you do about it?
Microsoft says it’s already working on a solution to the problem. However, there’s currently no official patch available.
However, you can at least use a workaround if you want (or need) to shut down your Windows 11 23H2 PC completely. There are various shutdown commands for Windows that still work.
For example, you can type shutdown /s /t 0 in the Command Prompt and your PC will shut down as usual. You can also create a shortcut on the desktop for this purpose as long as the problem persists.