Dwayne P. from
Metairie writes:
"I have two questions about Windows Vista. I hope you can answer both. First, why does it take so long for Vista to shut down? Sometimes it takes forever. Second, when I press the Shutdown button on the Start Menu, my PC goes to sleep! Is there any way to make the shutdown button do what it's supposed to do?"ANSWERED Sept. 9 - When Vista shuts down, it gives running processes a chance to stop cleanly. The timeout afforded is 20000 milliseconds (20 seconds), by default, but you can tinker with it by using the
Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
WARNING! Using the Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to re-install Windows to correct them. There is no guarantee that problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use the tool at your own risk.
If you are comfortable with editing the registry, go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control and change the “WaitToKillServiceTimeout” value. You can go as low as 1000.
If you'd rather not deal with the Registry Editor, you can also change the timeout setting by creating a
Registry Import File. Begin by copying the text between the lines, below, into
Notepad:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="1000"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Save the text as a file, called VistaHack.reg, and store it on your desktop. Be sure to enclose the filename in quotes, or Notepad will save it as VistHack.reg.txt, which won't work. Make sure Windows Explorer is configured to display file extensions, which is enabled under Folder and Search Options, so you can verify that the file has a .reg extension.
Double-click the VistaHack.reg file to import the new WaitToKillServiceTimeout setting into the registry. If you want to restore the default setting, simply change the value in Notepad from 1000 to 20000 and repeat the procedure. Please be aware that reducing the timeout value increases the risk that Windows Vista will shutdown before background processes finish what they're doing, which could mean lost data. For best results, lower the value gradually until Vista shuts down reasonably quickly.
(Note: At one time, Microsoft provided a free utility, called BootVis, which was useful for troubleshooting startup and shutdown problems with Windows XP. This utility, however, does NOT work with Windows Vista.)
As for the shutdown button on the Vista Start Menu. Go to the Power Options control panel and click "Change Plan Settings" under whichever radio button is selected. Next, click "Change advanced power settings." Find "Buttons and Lid" and click the "+" sign. Next, click the "+" sign adjacent to "Start menu power button." Click the setting next to "On battery:" and "Plugged in:". The options are normally Sleep, Hibernate, and Shutdown. Select "Shutdown," if that's what you want the Shutdown button to do.
