Solved How to fix slow shutdowns?

cheaterslick · Jan 5, 2025

Hello,

I've been running into slow shutdowns on my Lenovo laptop. It's taking over a minute (to minute and a half) to shut down and I was wondering how to speed up the process.

Years ago I to remember there was a batch file that would force quit any hanging apps (I think at the time it was a mousepad) for Windows 10 so I am wondering if there's some kind of an equivalent for Windows 11?

Any help would be most appreciated, thank you.

FreeBooter · Jan 5, 2025

Here's the batch script you're looking for.

Batch:

@Echo Off & Cls


Call :NoAdmin


:_Ask
Cls & Mode CON  LINES=11 COLS=90 & Color 0E & Title Coded By FreeBooter
Echo.
Echo.
Echo.
Echo       ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
Echo       º Do You Want To Close Programs That Is Not Responding During Shutdown (Y/N)? º 
Echo       ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ¼
Echo.
Echo.


Set /p input=^>
If /i  Not %input%==Y (Goto :_Ex) Else (Goto :_Add)

:_Ex
If /i Not %input%==N  (Goto :_Ask) Else (Goto :EOF)



:_Add

Reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop"  /v HungAppTimeout   /t REG_SZ  /d 1000  /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop"  /v WaitToKillAppTimeout  /t REG_SZ  /d 2000  /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop"  /v AutoEndTasks  /t REG_SZ /d 1  /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKU\S-1-5-19\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "AutoEndTasks" /t REG_SZ /d "1" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKU\S-1-5-19\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "HungAppTimeout" /t REG_SZ /d "1000" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKU\S-1-5-19\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "WaitToKillAppTimeout" /t REG_SZ /d "2000" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKU\S-1-5-20\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "AutoEndTasks" /t REG_SZ /d "1" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKU\S-1-5-20\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "HungAppTimeout" /t REG_SZ /d "1000" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKU\S-1-5-20\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "WaitToKillAppTimeout" /t REG_SZ /d "2000" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v "AutoEndTasks" /t REG_SZ /d 1 /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control"  /v "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" /t REG_SZ /d "2000" /f 2>&1 >nul

Cls & Mode CON  LINES=11 COLS=80 & Color 0E &Title Coded By FreeBooter
Echo.
Echo.
Echo.
Echo       ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
Echo       º Automatically Terminating User Processes During Shutdown Enabled º 
Echo       ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ¼
Echo.
Echo.
ping -n 6 localhost >nul
Exit


:NoAdmin
Reg query "HKU\S-1-5-19\Environment"
If Not %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 (
 Cls & Mode CON  LINES=5 COLS=48 & Color 0C &  Title  .....................- WARNING -.......................
 Echo.
 Echo.
 Echo  YOU MUST HAVE ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS TO CONTINUE
 Pause >Nul & Exit
)
 Cls
 Goto :eof

glasskuter · Jan 5, 2025

I would suspect you have some app causing the issue. You can find out which one by doing a clean boot.
If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

I would also make sure there are no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer

(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

cheaterslick · Jan 5, 2025

glasskuter said:
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)

I did that and it did find something to repair. It repaired it, but it's still slow shutdown.

glasskuter said:
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer

Same thing. No change.

glasskuter said:
(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

I did that, too. It didn't find anything to repair the second time, yet the hanging shutdown still exists, which leads me to believe the repair it did eariler is unrelated to the problem at hand.

I think I'll try that batch file, next....

I appreciate your input here, thanks!

glasskuter · Jan 5, 2025

did you try the clean boot?

cheaterslick · Jan 5, 2025

glasskuter said:
did you try the clean boot?

Not yet, but that is something that's going to take some time, going through all those start-up entries, one-by-one.

Even with all the MS services hidden, I have about three times the entries than the example shown on those clean boot instructions you linked to.

Bootup times are actually much faster than the shutdowns, so I really don't have any complaint, there.

Morph000 · Jan 5, 2025

I have verbose mode enabled so if it's slow at one phase of startup/shutdown you can tell where to start looking.
You can set it in Group Policy:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System. In the right pane, double-click on "Display highly detailed status messages".

cheaterslick · Jan 5, 2025

Morph000 said:
I have verbose mode enabled so if it's slow at one phase of startup/shutdown you can tell where to start looking.
You can set it in Group Policy:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System. In the right pane, double-click on "Display highly detailed status messages".

And what would it look like? What would you see?

glasskuter · Jan 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
that's going to take some time, going through all those start-up entries, one-by-one.

To prove whether a certain app is causing the problem takes less than 5 minutes. You disable all the entries except for MS ones, and restart. If restart is still slow, that tells you an application is not your problem. Now, the time is involved it your restart is normal and you then have to start eliminating apps to get down to the troublesome one..

Morph000 · Jan 5, 2025

And what would it look like? What would you see?

You would see one phase of the shutdown process taking an inordinate amount of time.
You can tell if it's a service, app or process holding things up.

You disable all the entries except for MS ones, and restart. If restart is still slow, that tells you an application is not your problem

This is a shutdown not startup issue though.

abactuon · Jan 5, 2025

Try disabling Windows fast startup.
Check the process and service termination timeouts in the registry (in milliseconds).
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
WaitToKillServiceTimeout = 5000

Windows can log the reason for the delay in shutting down the computer

Shutdown Performance Monitoring
200 Windows has shutdown
201 This application caused a delay in the system shutdown process
202 This device caused a delay in the system shutdown process
203 This service caused a delay in the system shutdown process

For example, it could be

If it's a one-time thing, you don't have to worry.

glasskuter · Jan 5, 2025

Morph000 said:
This is a shutdown not startup issue though

Doesn't matter. A clean boot would eliminate any 3rd party app being the cause of your SHUTDOWN issue. All you have to do is put it in a clean boot state and restart.. Then SHUT DOWN to see if it's any faster. If it is, one of your apps is the problem.

cheaterslick · Jan 6, 2025

glasskuter said:
Doesn't matter. A clean boot would eliminate any 3rd party app being the cause of your SHUTDOWN issue. All you have to do is put it in a clean boot state and restart.. Then SHUT DOWN to see if it's any faster. If it is, one of your apps is the problem.

True. I could luck out and find the offending service on the first couple of re-starts. Or I can go through the next 55 non-MS services one-by-one to see if which one's the case.

~

However, I did try the script in post #2 and that worked great. Just like it did in Windows 10.

A brute-force approach that's pretty effective.

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