Not every time but most of the time I try to shut down my laptop I have to shut it down twice.

I click the start menu, I hold the mouse pointer over the arrow next to the shutdown and lock symbole, and I select shutdown from the popup menu.  My laptop shuts down...and then restarts.  I do the same thing again and the laptop shuts down and stays off.

Any ideas why this happens?

you press on restart?

My only guess is that maybe you have auto updates turned on, and it thinks its smart by installing updates on shutdown and rebooting instead of shutting down if needed.

Seems a little unlikely, but the only thing I can think of.

something is reconfiguring your pc every time you start it up.
virus software or something the like that runs every time you use the computer i'm guessing.
Windows may be trying to reconfigure something, which would get restarts from shutdowns.

Nope, I'm pressing shut down.  I don't think it's installing updates, or at least I don't see anything telling me it's updating or has updated.

How would I know or stop that from happening?

BIOS needs updating

figure out your mobo and download then new bios, it is most definitely the problem.

Thanks for the help, I'll get working on that when I get home tonight!

sorry, i forgot that you were using a laptop.
go to power options in control panel.
then click on "choose what power buttons do"
your settings for power and battery are probably messed up as well. Set them to shut down in any applicable area.

if that doesn't work, THEN dl the mobo BIOS. do the easier thing first :P.

You know there are many ways to turn it off. I guarantee that if you throw your laptop at a wall it won't turn on again.