Shutdown XP Faster in Seconds

Click Start and type in regedit in the run dialog box

Navigate to the following registry keys and make the respective changes:-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Double Click WaitToKillServiceTimeout and change the value data to 1000
Double Click HungAppTimeout and change the value data to 1000
Double Click AutoEndTasks and change the value data to 1


HKEY_USERS\Control Panel\Desktop
Double Click WaitToKillServiceTimeout and change the value data to 1000
Double Click HungAppTimeout and change the value data to 1000
Double Click AutoEndTasks and change the value data to 1

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control
Double Click WaitToKillServiceTimeout and change the value data to 1000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Control
Double Click WaitToKillServiceTimeout and change the value data to 1000

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet002\Control
Double Click WaitToKillServiceTimeout and change the value data to 1000

The lowest data Windows will recognize is 1000 = 1 Second

Note: This tweak will close all the current running applications in 1 second after you press the shutdown key. So if an application is in the process of saving data, the associate service may be stopped prematurely which can cause data loss. Hence it is advisable to shutdown after you close all the applications and save the documents. This tweak will terminate application threads which could not be shut down by the user which causes prolonging of shutdown time. Hence, Shutdown time is tremendously reduced by applying this tweak.