When you shut down or restart a Windows server, a signal is sent to all devices, services, and programs running on the system. This signal announces that the system is preparing to shut down so everything needs to close gracefully, if possible. A normal shutdown will wait for a response from all devices and processes to make sure they have saved any files and can close before proceeding with the shutdown. If you’ve ever had Notepad or Word open with an unsaved file, you’ve seen the message asking if you want to save the file before the application closes.

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