This is an excerpt from
The TweakGuides Tweaking Companion Version 3.1 at
www.tweakguides.com authored by
Koroush Ghazi:
(I've put this in on my boxes & it will vouch for it. It works!)
QUOTE:
Increasing shutdown speed by reducing wait times part 1
Windows XP stores a couple of values in its registry which are responsible for determining how long to wait before shutting down (killing) open applications and services once the shutdown command has been given.
By editing these two settings and changing them to lower values, you can considerably decrease the amount of time that Windows XP needs to successfully shut itself down. The first part of this tweak deals with setting the amount of time Windows will take to kill open applications on shutdown.
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\'
Highlight the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' (the default should be 20000).
Now highlight the 'HungAppTimeout' value
Set it to '1000' also.
Increasing shutdown speed by reducing wait times part 2
The second part of this tip changes the same settings, this time for all users on the system.
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop'
Highlight the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' (the default should be 20000).
Now highlight the 'HungAppTimeout' value.
Set it to '1000' also.
Increasing shutdown speed by reducing wait times part 3
In the third part of this tip, we will alter a second registry setting to decrease the amount of time Windows XP will wait before shutting down active services after receiving a shut down command.
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\'
Highlight the value 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout'
Change this value to '1000.'
This should help to considerably speed up the time windows XP takes to shut itself down.
Auto kill tasks on shutdown
By default, Windows XP will prompt the user for input if there are one or more applications which have crashed or are not responding and it receives a shut down command. This halts the shutdown process entirely until the user approves the stopping of the non-responsive app.
By altering the registry slightly, Windows XP can close crashed applications automatically. While this does not speed up the shut down process, it does streamline it, and ensures that the user will not give the shutdown command then get up and leave, only to find the PC still powered on because Windows never received input on what to do with a hung application.
To allow Windows XP to close non-responsive applications automatically upon shutdown:
Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop'
Highlight the value 'AutoEndTasks.'
Change the value to '1'
XP will now be able to close hung applications without user input during the shutdown process.
END QUOTE
EDIT:
And also try this too:
Force XP to unload DLL files after closing a program
Dynamic Link Libraries, or DLLs, are files containing data or functions that Windows programs can call when needed by linking to them. Every piece of windows software will include instructions to the operating system as to which DLLs it will need to access, and XP will cache these particular files in memory for faster access.
The trouble is, Windows XP keeps these DLLs cached after the relevant program has closed, wasting memory space. While DLLs are generally tiny, enough of them can make a dent, so it's worthwhile to implement this registry tweak, which will force Windows XP to unload DLLs used by a specific program when that program halts.
To do this, first run REGEDIT.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer.
Create a new key named 'AlwaysUnloadDLL' and set the default value to equal '1.'