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Windows SteadyState may not automatically restart a Windows XP-based computer in certain circumstances

Article ID: 960271 - View products that this article applies to.

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Problem description

Windows SteadyState may not automatically restart a Windows XP-based computer in the following circumstances:

A user logs off when the Restart computer after logoff check box is selected on the General tab in the User Settings dialog box.
The update time that is selected in Windows SteadyState is reached.
Windows SteadyState has downloaded and installed updates.
The time that is specified in the Retain changes temporarily level of Windows Disk Protection is reached.

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This problem can occur in the following scenarios:

Scenario 1

A computer is removed from a domain and is now a workgroup computer.

Scenario 2

A user is logged on to a workgroup computer that has specific combinations of nondefault settings for the Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL local security policy setting and the DisableCAD
registry entry. These settings are specified in the Local Security Settings file (Secpol.msc). The combinations of settings are shown in the following table.

Notes about the table

The Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL local security policy setting is referred to as "Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL."
The
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon: DisableCAD
registry setting is referred to as "DisableCAD."

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Policy setting	"Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL" policy	"DisableCAD" registry setting	Error is reproduced
1	Not defined (Default)	Not present (default)	No
2	Not defined (Default)	0	Yes
3	Not defined (Default)	1	No
4	Enable	Not present (default)	No
5	Enable	0	No
6	Enable	1	No
7	Disable	Not present (default)	Yes
8	Disable	0	Yes
9	Disable	1	Yes

Scenario 3

A user is not logged on to a workgroup computer when a service tries to restart the computer, and one of the following policies is set:

In the Local Policies settings in the Local Security Settings file (Secpol.msc), the Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL policy is set to Not defined.

Note This setting is the default. If this setting is disabled, the computer cannot restart.
The Winlogon registry entry, DisableCAD
, is not present under the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Note If you add this entry and set it to 0, the computer cannot restart.

Note The first policy has higher precedence. Therefore, if the first policy is set correctly, the second policy is ignored regardless of its setting. In this scenario, no errors are reproduced in Windows SteadyState.

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WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, return the values of the Interactive Logon policy and the Winlogon registry entry to their default settings. After you finish these procedures, workgroup computers or computers that were removed from a domain and are now workgroup computers restart as usual.

To have us return the values of the Interactive Logon policy and the Winlogon registry entry to their default settings, go to the "Fix it for me" section. If you would rather do this yourself, go to the "Let me fix it myself" section.

Fix it for me

To return the values of the Interactive Logon policy and the Winlogon registry entry to their default settings automatically, click the Fix this problem link. Then click Run in the File Download dialog box, and follow the steps in this wizard.

Fix this problem
Microsoft Fix it 50073

Note This wizard may be in English only; however, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.

Note If you are not on the computer that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or to a CD, and then you can run it on the computer that has the problem.

Now go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section.

Let me fix it myself

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ )

How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

Interactive Logon policy

To return the Interactive Logon policy to its default setting, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type secpol.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
Expand Local Policies, and then click Security Options.
In the Policy column, right-click Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL, and then click Properties.
On the Local Security Setting tab, click Enabled, and then click OK.

Winlogon registry entry

To return the Winlogon registry entry to its default setting yourself, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
Locate and then select the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
In the right-side pane, right-click DisableCAD, and then click Delete.
Click Yes when you are prompted by the following message:
Are you sure you want to delete this value?
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.