Intune Restart Behavior with Deadlines and Hibernate Scenario

Question

Intune Restart Behavior with Deadlines and Hibernate Scenario

vamsikrishna peddireddy 0

Question:

I have a question regarding restart behavior in Microsoft Intune when deploying an application (win32) with a configured reboot deadline and deferral options.

Scenario:

Application(win32) is deployed to a user.

Restart deadline is set to 8 hours.

A countdown notification appears 15 minutes before the deadline (i.e., at 7 hours 45 minutes).

User is allowed to defer (for example, at the 4th hour).

Example timeline:

Application installs at 4:00 PM IST

First restart prompt appears immediately after installation

If deferred, next prompt appears at 8:00 PM IST

If deferred again, the device should be force restarted at 12:00 AM IST (deadline reached)

My question is: If the user puts the device into hibernate mode before the final deadline (e.g., before 11:45 PM):

Will the restart countdown (11:45 PM) and forced restart (12:00 AM) still trigger while the device is in hibernate?

If not, what happens when the user turns the device back on the next day?

Will the restart prompt appear again?

Or will the system immediately force a restart without notification since the deadline has already passed?

I would like to understand how Intune handles restart enforcement in such scenarios.

Pauline Mbabu 1,840 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2026-06-04T16:04:13.5366667+00:00

Hello @vamsikrishna peddireddy ,
This is a follow-up on the response above. If it helped answer your question, kindly mark it as Accepted Answer.

If you need more help, please share additional details in the comments.

Thanks!

1 answer

Your answer

Pauline Mbabu 1,840 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2026-06-04T16:04:13.5366667+00:00

Hello @vamsikrishna peddireddy ,
This is a follow-up on the response above. If it helped answer your question, kindly mark it as Accepted Answer.

If you need more help, please share additional details in the comments.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Intune doesn’t restart or show countdowns while the device is in hibernate. Enforcement only happens when the device is powered on and the Intune management extension and Windows are running.

From the available information, the behavior can be summarized as follows:

How the restart grace period works
- The restart grace period starts as soon as the Win32 app installation finishes.
- The device restart grace period and the countdown dialog timing are configured in the Win32 app assignment:
  - Device restart grace period (minutes)
  - When to display the restart countdown dialog box before the restart occurs (minutes)
  - Whether the user can snooze and for how long
- These settings only apply when Device restart behavior is set to Determine behavior based on return codes or Intune will force a mandatory device restart.
What happens if the device is hibernated before the deadline
- Hibernate powers the device off to a low‑power state. While in this state:
  - Intune cannot send or process notifications.
  - Windows cannot display countdown dialogs or perform the forced restart.
- Therefore, the 11:45 PM countdown and the 12:00 AM forced restart do not occur while the device is hibernating.
What happens when the device is turned on after the deadline
- When the device powers back on and checks in with Intune, it evaluates the app’s restart grace period and deadline.
- Because the deadline has already passed, the device is treated as overdue. The enforcement behavior reverts to “normal behavior for overdue deployments” once the grace period has expired.
- In practice, this means:
  - The user no longer has the full grace period; enforcement is applied as soon as policy is processed.
  - The device can be forced to restart to complete enforcement. Any countdown or notification behavior at this point is governed by the configured End user notifications and grace-period UX settings, but there is no additional “wait until the original deadline” because that time has already passed.

So for the described scenario:

No restart or countdown occurs during hibernate.
After the device resumes (the next day), once Intune policy is processed and the system sees the deadline is in the past, it enforces the restart as an overdue deployment. Depending on notification configuration, the user may see a short countdown or an immediate forced restart, but there is no new full grace period.

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