Recipe 6.8. Speeding Up Shutdown Time

Problem

Windows XP takes what seems an inordinate amount of time to shut down, and you want to speed up your shutdown time.

Solution

If shutting down XP takes what seems to be an inordinate amount of time, there are steps you can take to speed up the shutdown process.

Using a graphical user interface

Don't have XP clear your paging file at shutdown

For security reasons, you can have XP clear your paging file of its contents whenever you shut down. But if extreme security isn't a high priority, doing this can significantly slow shutdown times. To shut down XP without clearing your page file, run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management. Change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0. Close the Registry and restart your computer. Now, whenever you turn off XP, the paging file won't be cleared, and you should be able to shut down more quickly.

Turn off unnecessary services

Services take time to shut down, so the fewer you run, the faster you can shut down. Run the Services snap-in to the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) by typing services.msc at a command prompt or the run box, and use it to see what services are running and to disable any unnecessary ones from running on startup. Consider shutting down the Nvidia driver helper service, the Indexing service, and the Machine Debug Manager. And if you are using a computer that doesn't use wireless networking, turn off Zero Wireless Configuration.

Discussion

Running unnecessary services is frequently the main cause of slow shutdown times, but running unnecessary software can cause problems as well. Make sure to close all of your programs before shutting down XP.

Not having your paging file cleared at shutdown will generally not be a security problem. It's very unlikely someone will manage to get access to the paging file, more unlikely that they'll look there for sensitive data, and even more unlikely that any sensitive data will be found there.

See Also

When you shut down XP, each running process is given 20 seconds to shut down; if it doesn't shut down in that time, you get a "Wait, End Task, or Cancel" dialog box, which prompts you to wait for another 20 seconds, stop the process, or cancel the shutdown process. If you find that some processes need more time to shut down, you can give them more than 20 seconds. For information on how to do this, see MS KB 305788, "How To Increase Shutdown Time So That Processes Can Quit Properly in Windows XP"