Speedup System Shutdown
Theoretically, when you shut down Windows, your computer should be powered down in under fifteen seconds. The problem is that all of the cleanup that is done before Windows considers it “safe” to power the system down—including shutting down your open applications, stopping any running services, and writing any pending cache data to the disk—can sometimes delay the shutdown procedure.
The following solutions should help eliminate the sometimes-unnecessary delays that can accompany system shutdown.
Part 1: Reduce the hung application timeout
When shutting down, Windows attempts to stop all running tasks. If a task is not responding or refuses to shut down, there’s a built-in delay before
Windows will force the task to end. This delay is called the timeout, and it can be shortened if you’re experiencing problems or unreasonable delays
when shutting down your system:
1. Open the Registry Editor .
2. Expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
3. Double-click the WaitToKillAppTimeout value.
This number controls the time to wait, in milliseconds, before unresponsive applications are forced to close. The default is 20000 (twenty seconds), but it can be
decreased to any value; the minimum is 1 millisecond, although it’s impractical to use any value smaller than about 2000 (two seconds) here.
4. Also in this key is the HungAppTimeout value, which does pretty much the same thing as WaitToKillAppTimeout; just enter the same number for both values.
5. Expand the branches to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control.
6. Double-click the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value. This works the same as the WaitToKillAppTimeout value described above, except that it
applies to services instead of applications.
7. Close the Registry Editor when you’re done. You’ll have to restart Windows for the change to take effect.
These values also affect the timeouts at times other than just shutting down, such as when you click End Process in the Windows Task Manager.
Part 2: Use the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service
Occasionally, Windows has trouble unloading the hive containing the HKEY_ CURRENT_USER branch of the Registry If your system appears to
Repeatedly take a long time to log out and shut down, download and install Microsoft’s UPHClean utility. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article
#837115 (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837115) for details.
Part 3: Have Windows power down your computer automatically
You may have noticed that some computers—especially laptops—are able to power themselves off when you choose Shut Down from the Start Menu,
rather than displaying the “It’s now safe to turn off your computer” screen. This is convenient and makes for faster shutdowns. In order to configure your
computer to behave this way, you’ll need the following:
if you’re using a desktop (as opposed to a portable) computer, you must have an ATX-compliant case and motherboard. You can tell an ATX
system from the power button; if it’s a momentary pushbutton (that doesn’t stay in when you press it), you’ve likely got an ATX case. The difference is
that power switches in ATX systems send a “shut down” command to the motherboard, rather than simply cutting power. All new computers are
ATX-compliant, as is any machine that is likely to be capable of running Windows XP.
Secondly, you must have Advanced Power Management (APM) enabled in your system BIOS. Enter your system BIOS setup screen when first starting
your computer (usually by pressing the Del key), and make sure any options labeled “Advanced Power Management,” “APM,” or “APM-aware OS” are
enabled.
If these two conditions are met, Windows should automatically power down your system the next time you shut down.
Eliminate Unwanted Windows
Components
In addition to the settings and tweaks described, a common and effective technique for removing the bottlenecks in Windows is to eliminate
the programs and Windows components you don’t use. Most optional Windows components can be removed by double-clicking on the Add or Remove
Programs icon in Control Panel, clicking Add/Remove Windows Components, and unchecking any unwanted components. Single programs may not
seem to make much of a difference, but they do add up. Note, however, that not all optional components are listed here.
To add unlisted Windows components to your Control Panel, follow these steps:
1. Start Notepad (or your favorite plain-text editor), and open \Windows\Inf\Sysoc.inf.
2. The structure of this file is that of an .ini file.
The [Components] section lists the components shown in the Windows Components Wizard. Each entry in this section has this format:
name=options
where options is a list of parameters, separated by commas. The second to last parameter is the one that interests us. If it’s empty (nothing between the
surrounding commas), the corresponding entry will appear in the Windows Components Wizard. Otherwise, if the parameter is hide, the entry will not
appear. To “unhide” the entry, simply delete the hide keyword. For example, the entry for Windows Messenger looks like this:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
To add Windows Messenger to the list, allowing you to remove the component, simply change the line so it reads:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7
3. When you’re done, save the file, and reopen the Windows Components
Wizard to see the new entries.
0 comments