What to do when Windows 8 shut down very slowly

Sometimes Windows users may encounter a very nasty situation: the computer simply doesn’t want to shut down or the process is extremely slow taking up to 2 minutes. In the past I also had a similar issue and was a bit worried thinking about viruses or other possible threats when in fact the problem originated from elsewhere.

So I hope this short tutorial is going to exempt you from all the hassle caused by Windows shutting down slowly.

A simple registry setting may actually solve the problem. Open the Registry Editor (on your Start screen search for the term “REGEDIT“. The Windows Registry Editor opens. On the left side of the window, click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control.

Now, on the right pane click on WaitToKillServiceTimeout and reduce this setting (right click on it and then Modify). Set this to a recommended value of 3000 (meaning 3 seconds) so Windows will close any unresponsive program after 3 seconds, thus speeding up the shut down process. Please pay attention that lowering this setting may affect how the programs save files and shut down; if they don’t finish the closing procedure in 3 seconds (as per the setting above), they got killed and may become unstable or even unusable. I recommend you close all programs before shutting down windows to avoid any problem.

Any questions? Please comment.