# Closing the Workspaces window doesn't exit io.Connect Desktop

**URL:** <https://community.interop.io/t/closing-the-workspaces-window-doesnt-exit-io-connect-desktop/759>\
**Category:** io.Connect Desktop\
**Tags:** FAQs, workspace\
**Created:** [November 4, 2026, 10:34am UTC](https://community.interop.io/t/closing-the-workspaces-window-doesnt-exit-io-connect-desktop/759 "2026-11-04T10:34:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bvalev](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/community.interop.io/bvalev/32/45_2.png) [@bvalev](https://community.interop.io/u/bvalev)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2026, 10:34am UTC](https://community.interop.io/t/closing-the-workspaces-window-doesnt-exit-io-connect-desktop/759/1 "2026-11-04T10:34:56Z")

</div>

When a Workspace is the main working area, users sometimes expect the X on the Workspaces window to shut the whole platform down. On io.Connect Desktop it does not: the X closes only that window, and io.Connect Desktop keeps running. That’s by design. The platform exits when the last shell app closes, and your toolbar or Launchpad is a shell app that stays open. No setting changes it.

### How do I shut down the whole platform?

Users can already exit from the tray icon. Its Exit shuts io.Connect Desktop down completely, and by default it asks first (`dialogs.enableDefaultDialogs.preventShutdown`).

### Can the X on the Workspaces window shut the whole platform down?

Yes, if you catch the close and call `exit`. Whichever way you catch it, ask the user first, then finish with:

```javascript
// keep the saved layout as it was, and skip io.Connect Desktop's own prompt
await io.appManager.exit({ autoSave: false, showDialog: false });

```

**On 9.9 and later: prevent the close with `frame.onClosing`**

From 9.9, the Workspaces API’s `frame.onClosing` lets you stop the close and ask. Call `prevent()` and return straight away, then show your confirmation: by default the platform waits only 2 seconds for the handler before closing anyway. This is confirmed in the code but not yet tested.

**Stock Workspaces app: react from a hidden helper app**

With the stock Workspaces app, a hidden helper app can ask once the Workspaces window has closed. It catches the taskbar and Alt+F4 too, but because the window is already gone, answering “no” starts a fresh, empty Workspaces window.

Its definition needs `appManager: "full"`; in the SDK’s default mode it never sees the Workspaces window close:

```json
{
    "name": "<your-helper-name>",
    "type": "window",
    "autoStart": true,
    "hidden": true,
    "details": {
        "url": "<your-helper-url>",
        "hidden": true,
        "autoInjectAPI": { "enabled": true, "autoInit": { "appManager": "full" } }
    }
}

```

```javascript
let platformShuttingDown = false;
io.appManager.onShuttingDown(() => {
    platformShuttingDown = true; // fires before the platform closes any window
    return { prevent: false };
});

io.appManager.onInstanceStopped(async (instance) => {
    const app = instance.application;
    if (platformShuttingDown || app.name !== "workspaces-demo") return; // the stock app's name

    const remaining = io.appManager.instances()
        .filter((i) => i.application.name === app.name && i.id !== instance.id);
    if (remaining.length > 0) return;

    if (await confirmExit()) { // your own confirmation window
        await io.appManager.exit({ autoSave: false, showDialog: false });
    } else {
        await app.start();
    }
});

```

**Making the Workspaces app a shell app doesn’t help**

Closing it still wouldn’t exit while the toolbar or Launchpad runs, and shell apps are left out of saved Global Layouts.

### What about a custom Workspaces app?

In your own Workspaces app, the X is part of your header, so your code runs before the window closes: ask there, then call `exit` as above. Point the app definition’s `details.url` at your build and supply a `SystemButtonsComponent` through the `<Workspaces />` header components. It replaces the minimize button too; the frame wires an element with the id `workspaces-minimize-frame-button` for you.

Give your close button its own id and class. The frame binds the id `workspaces-close-frame-button` and the class `lm_close` to its own close, so a button that reuses either shows your confirmation and closes the window anyway. Closes from the taskbar, Alt+F4 or the last workspace tab don’t go through your button.

### _Note:_ Closing without exiting changes the saved layout

If the Workspaces window is closed while io.Connect Desktop keeps running, the next Global Layout save records it as absent. See _[Global Layout comes back without the Workspaces window, or with it empty, after a restart](https://community.interop.io/t/global-layout-comes-back-without-the-workspaces-window-or-with-it-empty-after-a-restart/752)_.

_\*The exit call and the helper app were tested on 9.10.1.1_