How to Speed Up Windows Shutdown

Waiting for your Windows to shut down completely can be a frustrating task especially when you are rushing to go somewhere. Your recalcitrant Windows OS might take its own sweet time to close all the programs and shut down completely. If this problem continuously harasses you, you could just make some amendments to the Windows registry and it will help to speed up your Windows shutdown process.

As you might be fully aware, the Windows registry is an important directory to store settings and options for your Windows OS. It contains all information and settings for your hardware devices as well as your software applications. You might have big trouble if things go wrong. Hence it is better to back up your Windows registry before doing anything to it. Once you have backed up your Windows Registry, you can start amending some registry files to speed up your computer shutting-down process.

To shut down your computer in a hurry, sometimes the process of closing down the programs will slow you down. The repetitive pop-up messages asking if you really want to quit can be really annoying. To speed up and force these programs to close down, a few registry files you need to amend are as follow:

Registry File: AutoEndTasks
Function: To end running tasks and automatically shutdown
How to change:
a. Go to “Start”, click “Run” and type “regedit” to open Windows Registry directory
b. Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
c. Look for the Registry Key called AutoEndTasks . Right-click, select Modify and Change the value to 1.
d. Exit Windows Registry

Registry File: WaitToKillApp
Function: To set the interval time for Windows OS before killing the applications users attempt to close
How to change:
a. Go to “Start”, click “Run” and type “regedit” to open Windows Registry directory
b. Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
c. Look for the Registry Key called WaitToKillApp. Right-click, select Modify and Change the value to 1000.
d. Exit Windows Registry

Registry File: HangAppTime
Function: To set the hang time for the app before closing
How to change:
a. Go to “Start”, click “Run” and type “regedit” to open Windows Registry directory
b. Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
c. Look for the Registry Key called HangAppTime. Right-click, select Modify and Change the value to 1000.
d. Exit Windows Registry

Registry File: WaitToKillServiceTimeout
Function: To set the time for Windows to wait before ending Microsoft Services.
How to change:
a. Go to “Start”, click “Run” and type “regedit” to open Windows Registry directory
b. Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
c. Look for the Registry Key called WaitToKillServiceTimeout. Right-click, select Modify and Change the value to 1000.
d. Exit Windows Registry

Apart from making changes to the four registry files above; another registry file you could probably change is ClearPageFileOnShutdown. When windows is shutting down, it will automatically remove and clear the contents of the pagefiles for security reasons. The cleaning process might take some time and slow down your closing process. If you are willing to compromise your system’s security, you can amend the registry settings to disable the Windows to do the clearing of paging files.

Registry File: ClearPageFileOnShutdown
Function: To clear the paging files
How to change:
a. Go to “Start”, click “Run” and type “regedit” to open Windows Registry directory
b. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
c. Look for the Registry Key called ClearPageFileOnShutdown. Right-click, select Modify and Change the value to 0.
d. Exit Windows Registry

Besides changing the registry setting, another approach to do quick shutdown of your computer is via some useful shutdown tool such as Quick Shutdown.