Shutdown Windows Vista faster

When you shutdown Windows, it attempts to stop all the running processes. Some processes may become unresponsive and thus can cause unnecessary delay in the shutdown process. This delay is called the timeout after which Windows forcibly terminates these unresponsive processes. You can modify settings to decrease the timeout and thus shutdown Windows faster.

Method 1 :

  1. Press the key combination Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog.
  2. In the Run dialog, type regedit and press Enter to run the Windows Registry Editor.
  3. In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key :
    HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop
  4. Right click on anywhere in the right-side pane and select New → String Value to create a new String value. Name the new registry value as WaitToKillAppTimeout.
  5. Double click on WaitToKillAppTimeout to modify its value data. Enter 5000 as new value. Click OK when done.

  6. Similarly, create a new String value HungAppTimeout and give it a value of 5000.
  7. Again, create a new String value AutoEndTasks and give it a value of 1.
  8. Next, navigate to the following registry key :
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl
  9. Double click on WaitToKillServiceTimeout to modify its value data to 5000. Click OK when done.
  10. Restart the computer or log off and then log on for the changes to take effect.

Method 2 :

  1. Download make_vista_shutdown_faster.zip to your Windows Desktop.
  2. Extract the contents of the zip file to a folder.

  3. Right click on make_vista_shutdown_faster.cmd and select Run as administrator.
  4. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.