PowerShell window preventing shutdown

Question

If I have a PowerShell window (at the PowerShell command prompt) on display it prevents the computer shutting down.

I.e. if I open a PowerShell window and then try to shutdown the server, I get the End Program popup saying Windows cannot end this program.

I get the same result if I start PowerShell from the start menu, from a cmd prompt and from a shortcut with -NoExit specified.

How can I get shutdown to automatically close a PowerShell window (if it is at the PowerShell prompt) in the same way as it would for a CMD window?

Alternatively, is it possible for PowerShell to detect when a shutdown has been initiated and therefore close itself?

Going down the alternative route as suggested by pk, I have come up with this test code:

Write-Host "PowerShellBlockingShutdown.ps1 Started" $global:shuttingDown = $false $sysevent = [microsoft.win32.systemevents] Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $sysevent -EventName "SessionEnding" -Action {$global:shuttingDown = $true; Write-Host " SessionEnding"} Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $sysevent -EventName "SessionEnded" -Action {$global:shuttingDown = $true; Write-Host " SessionEnded"} do { Start-Sleep -Seconds 3 if ($global:shuttingDown) {break} Write-Host " Waiting for Shutdown" } while ($true) Write-Host "PowerShellBlockingShutdown.ps1 Finished" 

Which seems to work.

Answer 1

I'm blatantly cut/pasting this answer from another site (since linking is frowned upon and I don't have a better answer). I do believe this will resolve your problem.

...it looks like you can set up a Event watcher using Register-ObjectEvent using [microsoft.win32.systemevents] and watching for either SessionEnding or SessionEnded. I haven't had time to test this out, but you could look at using something like this:

$sysevent = [microsoft.win32.systemevents] Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $sysevent -EventName "SessionEnding" -Action {"Shutdown/Logoff detected.";Get-Process -Name Powershell | Stop-Process -Force} 

More information about this class can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.win32.systemevents_events.aspx