Shutdown Time Increases..How long does your computer take and what might be the cause of this?????

Question

I have done many malware scans, defragged, check/scan disk..ALL to no avail. Have heard of registry adjustments and some Hive Clean-ups. These appear to be "forcing the issue". Some suggest going through Task Manager to delete some processes that I do not use yet the computer was "born" with. If they were there before this issue arose....there must be some other reason...???

Answer 1

well.... what u wanna do is:
1. delete all unnecessary progs from ur computer's hard drive.
2. http://www.download.com/Registry-Mechanic/3000-2094_4-10566526.html
3. remove unnecessary progs from ur system tray
Reduce your boot time:

* Check the BootOptimizeFunction registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction. If the Enable string value is not set to Y, change it. (This is enabled by default.) Exit regedit and reboot. A boot up defragment will now take place. This will optimize the position of the boot files for a faster boot.
* Purge Prefetch? I’ve found that after purging C:\windows\prefetch my system takes longer to boot. Admittedly, it is a delay of only few seconds and things normalise after the use of the computer over a few days. An exception is to clear out obsolete .pf files referring to programs that have been uninstalled. For more details, please see the March 2005 APC.
* Check the BIOS: Look for quick Power On Self Test (POST), and Boot Delay enabled. (On pressing the power button you will have to quickly press one of a number of keys. Esc, F1, F2, F10 and Delete are commonly used. It varies according to the BIOS manufacturer.) If you never use a floppy drive, turn off the option for seeking a boot up floppy.
* Completely defrag your boot/system drive: Unfortunately, the defragger provided in XP is a limited version of Executive Software’s Diskeeper. Opinions differ as to the best defragger for XP. Popular choices are Diskeeper, O&O Defrag and PerfectDisk. Worth investigating is a good, full-featured defragger available from: http://www.whitneyfamily.org/Hacks/?item=Defrag. This is a complete defragger. Multiple instances can be run simultaneously (if you have multiple disks). It features individual file defragging, with wildcards and recursion and will defrag NTFS, FAT and FAT32 file systems on any media (HD, Zip/Jaz, floppy, etc). Depending on the size of the hard drive, its free space and the number of files involved, this can take several hours. Planned for a future release is the defragmentation of NTFS metadata files.
* Remove the garbage and optimise the registry: Be very wary of know-all, do-all, and promise-all registry cleaners. Your choice should have an undo function. Norton One Button Check Up/Norton WinDoctor have their devotees. The freeware EasyCleaner available at http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm is more aggressive than these Symantec products, but when used carefully is beneficial.
* Use a Registry Optimiser: Download the excellent freeware program Erunt V. 1.1h from http://www.aumha.org/freeware/freeware.htm. This includes a tool for backing the XP registry and one (NTregOpt) for optimising it. NTregOpt optimises by compacting the registry hives to the minimum size possible.
* Malware problems: In addition to full AV scans, regularly use at least two recognised spyware/adware removal programs to check your system for nasties. The free Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta 1 is commonly regarded as an excellent product.
Eliminate unwanted programs loaded during boot up: Run msconfig to access the system configuration utility and press the start up tab. This gives access to started applications running in the background. By researching filenames and folders, you can get a feeling for what is unnecessary. Viruses and worms can hide and disguise themselves with authoritative sounding Windows system file names. If you are unsure do a Google search and if uncertain leave alone. The Start Up folder can be a depot for nasties, so research any unrecognisable shortcuts as Windows does not place critical files in this folder. A very useful listing of essential, non-essential and harmful start up programs is available at http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm

· Disable unnecessary services: Windows XP runs many services in the background. Disable those that are not actually necessary for the day-to-day operation of your PC, but do your homework first! Careful research is necessary here, depending on the work done by your computer. A comprehensive Services Guide for Windows XP is at http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm. The Indexing and System Restore services can occupy a lot of disk space and system resources. The Indexing service is not crucial. However, keep using System Restore (or its equivalent) as it can be a life saver. Loss of boot up speed may not be worth the consequence of crippling System Restore.

· Disable unneeded devices in device manager: For a quick fix disable any unused devices in the XP’s device manager.

Answer 2

Sometimes this happens with my computer, and I've decided it's because some process simply didn't shut down as fast as the others. Using the Task Manager to do this is not advisable. You could have spyware, and if you don't have Ad-Aware, you should get it and run it as soon as you get off the internet each day. The first time, run a complete scan, after that, run a Smart Scan.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

There is a free registry cleaner by Microsoft that does wonders for cleaning the registry safely and quickly. It only downloads the 4 files it needs to run this, then removes them when finished. If you haven't cleaned your registry lately, this would be a good idea.
http://safety.live.com/site/en-US/center/cleanup.htm

Answer 3

Generally the more junk you have running in the System Tray, the longer it will take your machine to shut down. Some of those are just junk -- updaters for Adobe Acrobat Reader and Java. Others are necessary for printer support for Windows printers and Multifunction devices.

Unless you really know what you're doing, it's best to leave those alone. You can run MSCONFIG and play around with the startup config, just be prepared to add them back if you get undesirable results.

Answer 4

The cause is that you have to many programs running in the back ground. Microsoft attempts to shut down every program before it shutsdown the OS. Some of these programs don't want to be shutdown so they make it take longer to shut it down. Go through your add remove programs and remove anything that you are not using. Check you start bar tray and see if there is anything running in there that you don't need. Make sure you have all the latest patches from Microsoft. Good luck ...

Answer 5

You have too many processes running in the background. Easy way to go about this is go to msconfig, in run type msconfig hit enter, and go to the startup tab. In there are all the processes that need to be started up when you boot up and shut down when you shut down. Refer processlibrary.com for processes/apps your not sure about in msconfig..

Answer 6

OH i believe you must empty your browser history and cache, This will let your computer restart MUCH quicker ! , go to start control panel, internet options, and delete cookies and lcear history and anyhting else that might be there ! I hope this helps you, let me know how it turns out okay? :)

Answer 7

your registry entries has been damaged or corrupt, to fix the shutdown and slow pc problem try this one..

http://www.pcwiles.com/pconpoint.htm