How to Resolve Windows Reboot is Pending

To help ensure a successful installation of the SOLIDWORKS software, the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager checks to see if there are any pending reboot requests on your system. A pending reboot request occurs when a program or installation makes a change to files, registry keys, services, or operating system settings. This leaves the Windows system in a transient state. 

As a best practice, before beginning a SOLIDWORKS installation, restart your system using a full Windows reboot Start > Power > Restart to purge the associated Windows registry key. Do not use Shut Down as it may not restart all processes if Windows Fast Startup is enabled. If it is not possible to restart the computer at the time of installation, then you can ignore the warning and continue. In such cases, restarting the system becomes the first troubleshooting step following an unsuccessful installation. 

If after restarting a computer, the warning continues to appear, this indicates the Windows registry key was not purged on restart. Follow the steps below to clear the message. 

CAUTION: Incorrectly editing the registry can severely damage your operating system. The SOLIDWORKS Technical Support team strongly suggests that you back up the registry data before making any changes to the registry. If you are unfamiliar with the registry, please work with your IT group to make these changes. 

1. Open the Windows Registry Editor. 
2. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager  
3. Right-click on the ‘Session Manager’ key/folder and select ‘Export’ to save a backup of the entire key/folder. 
4. Select and then right-click to delete the key: ‘PendingFileRenameOperations’