In context: Microsoft officially ended Windows 7's extended support for non-paying customers on January 14, but the company had to push out another free update a week later---and it might be forced to do it again. Many users of the venerable OS have complained that they're unable to shut down or restart their computers due to an unknown bug.
In late January, it was discovered that one of Microsoft's final free updates was causing wallpaper problems for some users, showing an image as black when set to stretch. The company was forced to issue a free fix, but a more serious problem has appeared.
Over the last couple of days, users on Reddit, Twitter, and Microsoft's forums have all reported their Windows 7 machines suddenly won't shut down or reboot; instead, the PCs show a message that reads: "you don't have permission to shut down this computer."
Bleeping Computer has listed some workarounds for the problem, including hitting CTL+ALT+DEL and clicking the red icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, creating new admin accounts, and running the Group Policy Editor from the command line to force permissions.
While it's unclear what has caused the issue, some say the recent Adobe update is to blame, and that disabling "Adobe Genuine Monitor Service," "Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Service," and "Adobe Update" services will fix the problem.
In a statement to Bleeping Computer, Microsoft said: "We are aware of some Windows 7 customers reporting that they are unable to shut down without first logging off and are actively investigating"
Assuming this is a bug within Windows, Microsoft will likely push out another free update to address the problem.
It's been almost a month since Windows 7 support ended, and companies are having to pay the high prices for extended security updates. The German government is one customer---it has to hand over around $886,000 after failing to upgrade to Windows 10 in time.