Microsoft KB Archive/229750

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BUG: ExitWindowsEx May Not Logoff in a Workstation Locked State

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Q229750

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API), used with:
 * Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
 * the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000

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SYMPTOMS
Calling ExitWindowsEx may not completely log off the currently logged on user in a workstation locked state. This happens if the workstation is locked manually by a user and ExitWindowsEx is called while a screen saver is also running on the system.

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION
If the workstation is locked manually by the user and a screen saver is also set in the Control Panel (with or without password protected) ExitWindowsEx may not completely log off the current logged on user. This can occur if ExitWindowsEx is called either from an application launched by the logged on user or from an interactive service running under LocalSystem account. ExitWindowsEx closes the screen saver if it is running and shutdowns all the processes running in the security context of the logged on user. But it will not complete the logoff sequence and the workstation is in a state where the default application desktop will be active indefinitely. When this happens, WinLogon waits for a SAS (CTRL+ALT+DEL) to complete the logoff sequence. To complete the logoff operation in this state, the user needs to press CTRL+ALT+DEL and then cancel the Windows NT Security dialog box.

Calling ExitWindowsEx in the following situations completely logs off the currently logged on user:


 * 1) The workstation is not locked manually by the user irrespective of the screen saver setting.
 * 2) The workstation is locked manually by the user and the screen saver is set to None.
 * 3) The workstation is locked automatically by WinLogon after a lock grace period while a password protected screen saver is running.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbAPI kbKernBase kbOSWinNT400 kbOSWin2000 kbSecurity kbDSupport kbGrpDSKernBase

Issue type : kbbug

Technology : kbAudDeveloper kbWin32sSearch kbWin32API