An app is preventing restart/shutdown of Windows 10, and I don't know what it is. Please help.

[user55009]

Hi everyone. I'm sure we've all had the occasional warning message of "This app is preventing your computer from restarting, make sure to go back and save your work, or click restart to close it" (or something along those lines). My PC does this 95% of the time I go to restart or shutdown. It provides no name for the app, just an icon. Unfortunately, the icon is the generic looking one that is assigned to most of the processes if you open up task manager and take a look. How can I find out what this app is? It isn't necessarily causing issues, but it is somewhat annoying and I'd like to see if I can resolve this minor nuisance. Thank you in advance!

NOTE: Windows 10 OS

 

[bjornl]

Microsoft says that this is most likely caused by a software conflict and that this can often be resolved by doing a clean boot.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows


Or you can do this to prevent it from asking (not recommended):
https://www.askvg.com/windows-tip-disable-this-app-is-preventing-shutdown-or-restart-screen/