BUG: ExitWindowsEx() May Not Logoff in a Workstation Locked State

ID: Q229750

The information in this article applies to:

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          : kbKernBase kbSecurity 
Version           : winnt:4.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: May 5, 1999