Windows shutdown mystery

Si_Clist

If I go to shut down my Windows 11 laptop when I've forgotten that I have a program running, I get white text on a black screen inviting me to either close the program (?) or shut down anyhow.  And that was the same with our previous laptop running Windows 10. 

No problem.  What is also not a problem but is puzzling me is that quite often now when I shut this laptop down, I'll get a momentary glimpse of that screen (i.e. the white text on black with the "shut down anyhow" box) and then the laptop shuts down normally.  But it's there for too short a period for me to be able to read it

Just out of curiosity, is there any way I can find out what the program is that's triggering that screen?

TadleyBaggie

Video the screen with a phone.play the video back and pause it when you get the mystery screen.

Si_Clist

Good idea!  Problem is, I never know when it's going to decide to do it ...

Neil_Jones

This may not be a program, sometimes its actually a Windows process that occasionally gets stuck.

Outside of that the usual culprits are something like Word/Notepad where its asking you if you want to save a file, as those prompts are not discarded automatically.  If you'd left Word open without changing a file or opening a file it would close.

That being said shutdown in Windows 8 and later is by default effectively hibernation in new colours.  You "shut down", it just basically hibernates instead and the idea is when you power on again, hibernation is quicker to restore than a proper shut down.  However in reality it makes no real difference on modern hardware to the start-up time.