Windows 10 Enterprise N fakes shutdown and then returns to login prompt with flight mode enabled

Question

I first noticed this problem a couple of days ago when I arrived at work to find my PC booted with flight mode enabled.

I initiated a shutdown yesterday only to find that my PC's screen went black for a short period, and then bumped me back to the login screen, now showing the aeroplane icon in the tray.

Testing this further this morning, the problem seems quite consistent:

1. Click "Start" button
2. Click Power icon
3. Select "Shutdown"
4. Normal shutdown stuff happens, screen goes black.
5. After a short period the screen comes back on, returning me to the login screen, this time with flight mode enabled.

Between 3 and 5, I don't touch the machine or any associated peripherals, etc. I've uploaded a video here which demonstrates 1-5 happening. I don't really see anything out of the ordinary in the Event Viewer around this time.

OS: Windows 10 Enterprise N x64

Feature updates: Windows 10, version 1803 (installed 2018/07/24, so not that recently).

Is there a solution to this?

Answer 1

So, I found out what it was (but not why it was suddenly enabled - I'm looking at you Microsoft!)

It turns out that Windows 10 has something called "fast start-up" which was causing this unwanted behaviour. Microsoft has an article about how to disable it, which I'll summarise here:

1. Click the Start button.
2. Type "Power & Sleep Settings".
3. Click "Additional power settings" on the right-hand side.
4. Click "Choose what the power buttons do" on the left-hand side.
5. A little bit under "Define power buttons and turn on password protection", click "Change settings that are currently unavailable".
6. Uncheck "Turn on fast start-up (recommended)"
7. Click OK

Problem solved (hopefully for you too!)