Automatically Close Applications During Shut Down Windows 10

Automatically Close Applications Not Responding during Shutdown: If you’d like to set Microsoft Windows 10 to automatically close applications while performing a system shutdown then here are a few tips to help you do just that. By default, when applications have unsaved data, Windows 10 shows  a “closing apps and shutting down” screen that gives the options to “Shut down anyway” or “Cancel“. The individual applications are listed as “This app is preventing shutdown” or “this app is preventing you from restarting“. After about two minutes, if the you have not made a choice, it cancels the shutdown or restart and goes back to the Desktop.

Close Apps Automatically At Shutdown

In order for Windows 10 to shut down the applications without prompting for user input, you can use a registry code. The modifications needed are outlined below. In order to set up the task, input the following settings into Windows 10:

1. Download the forcecloseshutdown.zip file.
2. Open the forcecloseshutdown.zip file.
3. Double-click the forcecloseshutdown.reg file.
4. Select “Yes” on the User Account Control prompt.
5. Select “Yes” on the Registry Editor prompt.
6. Select “OK” on the second Registry Editor prompt.

Once the registry settings import, you close all applications and restarts Windows so that the settings can take effect. Once restarted, at your next shut down and any subsequent restarts/shutdowns, Windows 10 no longers shows a prompt to “Shut down anyway” and automatically closes all apps during a shutdown or restart. Note that any unsaved data will be lost as Windows will force close the app.

Should you need to undo the changes made to the Windows 10 registry  then you can simply download the undoforcecloseshutdown.zip and follow the steps as above to import the settings and revert to the normal shutdown/restart process. If you want to see how to create an AutoEndTasks registry read on below.

HungAppTimeout & AutoEndTasks

When user processes (tasks) do not end (close) automatically at sign out, restart, or shutdown, the system waits until the process ends on its own. If the process hasn’t ended by the set HungAppTimeout value, the End Task dialog box appears, stating that the processes are not responding to the End Task request and prompts the user to either force sign out/restart/shut down and force close (end task) the non-responding processes OR to cancel sign out/shut down to return to Windows.

The AutoEndTasks value determines whether these non-responding processes get forced closed automatically or not to finish signing out, restarting, or shutting down Windows. Via EightForums AutoEndTasks Windows 10

• Open Regedit by hitting Windows + R and typing “Regedit” into the box.
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl.
• Open WaitToKillServiceTimeout.
• Set the value to 2000 and click Ok. This is the amount of time, in milliseconds, that Windows waits to kill an unresponsive service. Most sites recommend you set this no lower than 2000 so that the system has some time to shut these processes without causing a problem.
• Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop.
• Create a String Value and name it WaitToKillAppTimeOut. You can create a string value by right-clicking in the right pane and selecting New > String Value.
• Open WaitToKillAppTimeOut and set it to 2000.
• Create a String Value called HungAppTimeout and set it to 2000.
• Create another Sting Called AutoEndTasks and set it to 1.

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