Speed Up Vista Shutdown

A lot of people complain long boot Vista and how annoying it is. But having to wait forever for Vista to shut down, can be equally frustrating. Most likely you will experience it if you've used Vista for a while and run a lot of software. A lot of programs you have installed using different services in the background, and the more there are, the more Vista has to close when you turn off your computer. As a result, take longer to shut down.

There is a feature that lets you see which programs are slowing down your system. To access go to Control Panel - Performance Information and Tools. Then click on Advanced Tools in the navigation panel. You will get a screen that shows you the different tools. If there are any shutdown issues, a message will appear at the top of this screen. Click on it and see what programs creates problems along with recommendations on how to resolve them.

There is some registry tweak that can involve a significant reduction Vista shutdown time by shutting down services faster. Be careful to not make any mistakes, and remember that if you mess up and damage your computer, you are solely responsible for it. And a backup of the registry before you begin.

Once you have backed up the Registry, go to Start and type regedit in the search bar. This will open Registry Editor. Then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control. You should see WaitToKillServiceTimeout on the right side. Change the value of 20000 milliseconds (20 seconds) to 5000 milliseconds (5 seconds). Do not choose a lower value because services need time to shut down properly. This tweak should make your system shutdown faster. Enjoy.