How To Shutdown Windows XP Faster

Does your Windows XP computer seem to take an awful long time to shutdown?

Does it seem to take a long time when you click the End Process button in the Windows Task Manager?

When Windows shuts down it will try to stop any running applications. The problem occurs when an application is not responding or just plain refuses to shutdown. There is a built-in time delay of 20 seconds which has to occur before Windows will force the offending application to close. It is this 20 second delay that we often find so aggravating.

However, there is a way to speed-up this process so you won't have to wait so long each time you shutdown or end processes on your Windows XP computer. Follow along with these steps and see how you can improve the shutdown performance of your PC.

1. Please CLICK HERE to read our disclaimer before getting started. Be sure to read through this entire article before you actually start and if you DO NOT feel comfortable performing these steps, then STOP and DO NOT PROCEED any further.

2. Click your "Start" button, select "Run", type "Regedit" and click "Ok":

3. Click menu "File -> Export", type "registrybackup" in the File Name line, select the "All" radio button as the Export Range, make note of where you are saving your registry backup file and then click "Save":

4. Now click the "+" next to each registry hive key to navigate to and open the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

5. Click on the "Desktop" key and then double-click the "WaitToKillAppTimeout" value located in the right pane.

6. Change the value from 20000 (20 seconds) to something more reasonable like 8000 (8 seconds) and then click "Ok". I don't recommend any value less than 5000 (5 seconds).

7. Now scroll up in the right pane and double-click the "HungAppTimeout" value and also change its value to 8000 (8 seconds).

8. Once more click through each registry hive key to navigate to and open the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

9. Click on the "Control" key and then double-click the "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" value in the right pane.

10. Change the value to match the same 8000 (8 seconds) you set in the previous steps and then click "Ok".

11. Close the Registry Editor when you're done and restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Your computer will now reach the automatic timeout values much faster and you won't sit there watching and waiting for the pot to boil. What you have performed is what we call a "registry hack". Although there are entire topics and books dedicated solely to exploring the intricacies of the Windows registry, this is just one of literally thousands of possible hacks.

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