1. If it appears that Win XP is not shutting down, give it
some time. Some users report a minute or longer for
shutdown to visibly start. Generally, this is a
consequence of software that is running when shutdown is
attempted. It also may have something to do with
particular hardware. If you experience this problem, be
sure to close all running programs before attempting
shutdown and see if this solves your problem. If so, then
you can determine, by trial and error, which program(s)
are involved. 2. Newsgroup correspondent "Sarah."
provided one specific solution for this. In Control Panel
| Administrative Tools | Services, stop the Nvidia Driver
Helper service. (You can also get this by launching
SERVICES.MSC from a Run box.) Many other newsgroup
participants quickly confirmed that this solved
this "extremely slow shutdown" problem for them (it's the
most successful solution for this problem to date).
According to correspondent Gan Ming Teik, downloading and
installing the new version 23.11 Nvidia driver also solves
this problem. 3 Correspondent Graeme J.W. Smith reported
a more obscure cause of slow shutdown: In Win XP
Professional, the Group Policy Editor has a security
option to clear the pagefile at system shutdown. The same
setting also forces the hibernation file to be wiped at
shutdown. These processes take long enough that users may
think that shutdown has hung. To change the setting, click
Start | Run, type GPEDIT.MSC, click OK. Drill down to
Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security
Settings | Local Policies | Security Options. In the right
pane, find "Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile."
NOTE: Since someone actually has to have set this policy,
the problem will be pretty rare, but is worth mentioning.
However, Forum participant "roadrunner" reported that the
personal security app Privacy Eraser automatically
enables "Clear virtual memory pagefile," and, therefore,
may be the cause of a slow shutdown.
