Illustrator prevents restarting windows - This application is preventing Windows from restarting

[gorillamilk69]

I have Photoshop and Illustrator starting up with Windows. A lot of the time, neither of them gets used, but that's not a big deal.

When I go to restart Windows and it goes through and closes apps, Illustrator, for some reason, is not letting Windows close it and eventually cancels the restart altogether. 

Photoshop is getting automatically closed fine (even with files open in it) as are all other applications. Illustrator remains as the last app standing and Windows says something like "This application is preventing Windows from restarting". 

I started noticing it in the last update I think. I've done this thousands of times probably and Illustrator never acted like this. 

[Monika Gause]

But you can shut it down? Does it crash when you shut it down?

What happens when Illustrator is closed: the preferences are written. So maybe you have an issue with a corrupted preferences file. What if you reset them? This will unfortunately erase your settings. You can rename the Preferences folder.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/setting-preferences.html 

[Anubhav M]

Hello @gorillamilk69,

Sorry to hear about your experience. I hope the suggestions shared by Monika helped resolve the problem. If not, would you mind trying to run Illustrator under a different administrator account (Windows / macOS) and checking if it helps?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[gorillamilk69]

Now that I posted this issue, I can't get Illustrator to prevent restarting. Maybe it knew I was mad at it 😛

If I see a pattern of what may cause it again, I'll update this post. Thanks for the replies and help!

[Bobby Henderson]

What happens if you remove Photoshop and Illustrator from the Windows start-up sequence?