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Frequently asked questions

Main window is inaccessible after hiding the tray icon

If you have enabled the Never show tray icon option in the Settings while Shutter is also configured to minimize automatically on launch, you may find yourself unable to access Shutter's graphical user interface.

To recover, first terminate all running instances of Shutter via the Task Manager. Then, manually edit the Settings.ini file found in the application data directory and set HideTrayIcon=0. Shutter will show its tray icon again on the next launch.

Computer is awake after a hibernation or sleep action

When you execute a hibernation or sleep action in Shutter, you might find your computer woken up later or not even entering a suspended mode.

First, check that the Shutter's action status says "Finished", rather then "Error" or similar. This will tell whether Shutter was able to successfully initiate a suspended mode (e.g. sleep, hibernation, standby). However, despite a successfully initiated suspended mode, there are several things which can interfere with the process of entering a suspended mode, for example:

  1. Other applications and services can prevent the system from entering the suspended state by cancelling it before it completes.
  2. The system can be awoken from the suspended state by hardware and software events, e.g. keyboard/mouse activity, wakeup timers, Windows Update.

When these circumstances occur they occur outside of Shutter's control, but you should be able to prevent both of these circumstances, and here is a list of things to try:

  1. Enable the "Disable wake event" option in Shutter's action, and then check if the system continues to exhibit the same symptoms.
  2. Disable the "Allow wake timers" option in Windows Power Options, and then check if the system continues to exhibit the same symptoms.
  3. Find out what causes the system to be reactivated (woken up) from the suspended state by examining the logs via Event Viewer » Windows Logs » System. Look out for power related sources, e.g. "Kernel-Power", "Kernel-Boot", "Power-Troubleshooter".
  4. One of the most common offenders is a Windows Update procedure that wakes up your computer to check and install updates. Unfortunately, it may not put your computer back into the suspended state afterwards. You can disable the ability of this task to wake up your computer by modifying the UpdateOrchestrator task in the Task Scheduler.

See also this comprehensive list of ways to prevent Windows 10 from waking up your computer: https://superuser.com/questions/973009/conclusively-stop-wake-timers-from-waking-windows-10-desktop

Computer shuts down or reboots immediately after login

If your computer shuts down or reboots immediately every time you log in to Windows, you may have encountered a shutdown loop. This can happen when all of the following conditions are true at once:

  • A Shutdown or Reboot action is configured in Shutter.
  • No events are defined, or the configured events trigger immediately upon startup (e.g. a Countdown set to zero, or with no conditions that require waiting before firing).
  • The Autorun at Windows startup/logon option is enabled in Settings.
  • The Start event monitoring when application launches option is enabled in Settings.

Under these conditions, Shutter starts automatically when you log in, immediately begins monitoring, finds its trigger condition already satisfied, and executes the shutdown or reboot before you have a chance to intervene. The cycle then repeats on every subsequent login.

Note: Uninstalling and reinstalling Shutter will not resolve this issue. Shutter's settings and presets are stored in the application data directory, which is preserved across reinstallation.

How to break the loop

To regain access to your computer, you must first boot into a safe environment where Shutter will not start automatically. Then you can correct the configuration before rebooting normally.

Step 1: Boot into a safe environment

Choose one of the following options:

  • Boot Windows into Safe Mode. In Safe Mode, startup programs including Shutter do not run automatically, so the loop will not trigger.
  • Boot from a separate Windows installation, a live Linux environment, or any other bootable OS that gives you access to the file system of your main Windows installation.

Step 2: Correct the configuration

Do not open Shutter at this point, as it may trigger the loop again. Instead, do one of the following:

  • Navigate to Shutter's application data directory and manually edit the Settings.ini file to disable the automatic starting of event monitoring. This preserves your events and actions configuration.
  • Alternatively, delete or rename Shutter's settings and presets files in the application data directory to reset Shutter to its defaults.
  • Alternatively, locate and remove the Shutter autorun entry from the Windows Registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run or the corresponding HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key) to prevent Shutter from launching on login altogether.

Step 3: Reboot normally

Reboot into your main Windows installation and reconfigure Shutter as needed. The loop should be resolved.

How to prevent a shutdown loop

To avoid accidentally creating a shutdown loop in the future:

  • Always define at least one meaningful event before enabling a Shutdown or Reboot action. See the Actions article for important warnings about these terminal actions.
  • Test your events and actions configuration manually before enabling Autorun at Windows startup/logon or Start event monitoring when application launches.
  • Consider placing a Message action before a Shutdown or Reboot action to give yourself a visible prompt and a chance to cancel.
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