How to Prevent Shutdown and Restart on Windows 10

Windows 10 is downloading some updates, is going to restart and you are working on a major project?

Do you want to prevent your Windows from shutting down or restarting no matter what the causes are?

You are in the right place!

The biggest downside of Windows 10 is that Microsoft may release a critical update and once it’s installed on your system, a reboot may be required. Sometimes it just restarts…

The one thing users can do is defer installing the update. The second Windows 10 sees an opportunity, it is going to set up the update and restart your system within the process. Likewise, some Windows apps restart your system to complete installing.

A few of these apps and programs will allow you to select when you restart your system, others won’t.

The point is, your system can shut down or restart with or without your approval. When it occurs without your approval it’s annoying, to say the least. Lost work is usually a casualty of a random shutdown or restart.

In this tutorial, we will discover a very useful app called ShutdownBlocker.

Download ShutdownBlocker

ShutdownBlocker is a free, portable and lightweight tool that will allow you to prevent and block Windows from automatically restarting or shutting down your computer for any of the reasons we talked about earlier at the beginning of this article (updates, installing driver, …).

First, download ShutdownBlocker and unzip the archive using 7-Zip or any other program.

You’ll get the program with a README.TXT file, that file incorporates some extra commands if you want to go deep and use hidden features this app may provide.

* -startHidden
If an instance of the program is not already running, starts the program and immediately hides it.
* -block
Starts the program and enables blocking.
* -allow
Starts the program and disables blocking.

Block Shut Down

By default ShutdownBlocker will block shutdowns, you can also check “When blocking, also intercept shutdown.exe/MusNotification.exe” to further block other programs from shutting down your computer.

You can hide the program in the system tray and use the icon to block/allow Windows from shutting down. If you click on “Settings / About…” you will get more preferences

You may minimize the app to the system tray after you block shut down and restart. It runs in the background to stop Windows from shutting down. This app will even block users’ attempts to shut down a system.

Unblock Shut Down

To unblock shut down, open ShutdownBlocker. Click on the “Allow” button o unblock shut down. The “Allow” button will be greyed out. To block shut down once more, simply click on the “Block” button.

ShutdownBlocker provides an icon to the system tray. You’ll be able to block and unblock shut down from the app’s system tray icon. You may as well force your system to shut down or restart.

ShutdownBlocker will block most shut down and restart attempts together with those by a user. The app is nice when you’ve got a download in progress and need to stop Windows update from restarting your system. You may set ShutdownBlocker to run and block shutting down whenever you boot into your system. To run ShutdownBlocker at startup, click on the “Settings/About” button on the bottom left of the app window.

Choose the “Start with Windows” option to run the app at Windows startup. You may select to hide the app’s system tray icon and add it to the Start menu.

ShutdownBlocker can block most shut down attempts however not all of them. By the developer’s personal admission, there are some processes that may have the ability to shut Windows down or restart it regardless of this app blocking it. These processes nevertheless are uncommon for the typical user. If all you’re attempting to do is block Windows and apps from shutting your system down, ShutdownBlocker will do the trick.