Windows wants me to restart evey time I log in

Well not every time, but every time AFTER the first login. I start up my computer and log in, no problem. Then I log out, and log back in again. As soon as Windows finishes loading the desktop, the following pop-up message appears:

You must restart your computer to apply these changes.
Before restarting, save any open files and close all programs.
[Restart Now] [Restart Later]

Needless to say, I click on "Restart Later". A bit of background info:

I recently upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit) from Windows XP Professional. Win 7 was a clean install (obviously) but I did use the "Windows Easy Transfer Wizard for Windows 7" utility to transfer my files and settings from XP to 7. So I believe that this may be due to some setting or parameter that was transferred from XP.

The second point of note is that this only occurs when I completely disable "User Account Control" (which is always). As a power user who follows common-sense computing practices, I find UAC extremely intrusive and annoying, so I refuse to use it. Besides, I still use "old" programs that won't easily run otherwise because they are unsigned.

I even tried disabling all non-M$ services and all start-up programs with "msconfig" and the message still appears on the second and subsequent logins. Any ideas?

Thanks,
John

whs said:

Disabling the UAC is very risky and really not recommended. I suggest you read this article that explains the logic. And especially in Win7 it is really only a minor intrusion.

Hi @whs.

I know that disabling UAC is risky. I read the suggested article and didn't learn anything that I didn't already know. To me, UAC does what it is supposed to do, but it isn't the "be all and end all". It's really just Microsoft's way of trying to "fix" a bad (albeit not bad at the time Windows was first created) OS design. It's really a band-aid.

That being said, I would agree that most users, especially those that take risks such as going to websites like Pirate Bay or file sharing, definitely should use it. However, I use my PC primarily for work, which is tech support. 90% of my computer use is logging into Linux based systems via VPNs and other secure connections. The other 10% is using older (unsigned) applications that have been safely used for years. In this very specific scenario, UAC is an annoyance, pure and simple. I have one application that is unsigned that I open probably a 100 times a day. That "beep" and having to click the ack screen very soon wears you down. Therefore I will not use UAC for this particular PC.

I also do a full backup every night. If in the highly unlikely event I do get hit by a worm or other malware, I would simply restore from backup. Problem solved while I go for coffee...

John

Hi john

Any hardware you have running under compatibility mode?

Lomai said:

Hi john

Any hardware you have running under compatibility mode?

Not that I am aware of @Lomai. I certainly didn't configure any hardware manually and all my drivers are Win7 signed drivers. Is there an easy way to find out without going through every device one by one?

John

Have you tried creating a new user account? Test the new user account for a few days and see if the problem is resolved. If it is, just delete the account that was giving you problems.