Can't shut down from command line

  • Section(s): Booting, Utilities
  • Published on Apr 25, 2006.
  • Last Modified on Apr 25, 2006.
  • Last Modified by Mitch Tulloch.
  • Rated 4.3 out of 5 based on 12 votes.
How to resolve a problem when using the shutdown.exe command when logged on with non-admin credentials.

If you have a Windows XP desktop computer and you try to shut down your machine from the command-line by typing shutdown -s then you may get the following result in response to this command:

The operation completed successfully.
A required privilege is not held by the client.

This will happen if you are logged on to your machine as an ordinary (domain) user instead of an account having administrative credentials. This happens because of a bug in how the shutdown.exe command works in Windows. Fortunately, there's a workaround:

1. Log on as an administrator and open Local Security Settings from Administrative Tools.

2. Select Security Settings \ Local Policies \ User Rights Assignment

3. Open the user right named "Force shutdown from a remote system" and add the INTERACTIVE group to this user right.

 

About Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch was lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is the book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch was also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008 and technical project lead for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit, both books also from Microsoft Press. For more information on these and other books by Mitch, see www.mtit.com .

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