XP slow for shutting down

[gibson]

Hi all,

Newbie poster here. I went through PCStats 99 Performance Tips for Windows XP mainly applying the tips for Increasing XP shutdown speed (95-99). It worked really well for the first few weeks (approx. 3) but now my computer has gone back to taking around 3mins or so to shut down. I went back into the registry to make sure all the changed registry values were the same as in the article and they were. The computer waits for about 3mins and then the blue XP log off screen appears and that takes a few seconds to run though 'logging off'...'saving your settings'....'windows is shutting down' processes and then the computer finally turns off. Does anyone know what I can do to decrease my shutdown times or why it has gone back to taking so long to shut down? Any and all help will be much appreciated.

- Gibson

[therealwesty]

Welcome to PCStats Gibson!

Do you have a lot of software that runs in the background or sits in the system tray? All of those background applications need to terminate before Windows will actually shut the computer down. If the computer is taking an excessive ammount of time to power off I'd say of those applications is hanging during shut down.

I'd probably try to shut down or disable any of those applications that you don't need. Many of them should have some option to prevent them from starting with Windows. Not having them running all the time will help Windows boot faster and leave more resources free when you are working with your usual applications. And, if you can disable the one that is hanging on shut down it should correct that issue too.

If you don't want to start turning off the software in your tray etc then you might have to systematically shut each of them down manually and then try shutting down. If you close X applicatin manually, then a shut down goes OK then we've narrowed down who's causing the problem anyway. Once you know what the problem application is I might check for patches or updates for it or uninstall it if you don't really need it.

Hope something is helpful!

[gibson]

Hey Westy,

I shut down all the applications that are running in the system tray before I execute Windows shut down. The computer boots up relatively quickly and with no problems. I've already disabled most programs from starting up aside from a few essentials. The one program that I don't shut down when turning the computer off is Norton Internet Security 2005 Anti-Spyware edition. I'll try logging off before I shut it down next time but is there any other points I should focus on other than that?

[Rudegar]

you may want to look how many services you dont need you have running

[gibson]

I am not familiar with all the processes running in the background so I only shut down the ones I know I don't need. Which ones should I look out for so I can shut them down next time?