• Windows 7 is very slow to shutdown

      

    When I shut down in Windows 7 the "Shutting Down" screen stays on for over 3 minutes. I have tried booting in safe mode but I get the same result. I have tried disabling third party programs and get the same result.
• Open the registry and locate the key{ \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management}, then change the value of ClearPageFile at Shutdown to a 0  IF the value is 1. If the value is 1, it will take longer for your computer to shutdown..this fix cured it all for me. I also did this : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\
   Highlight the value WaitToKillServiceTimeout
   Change this value to 1000.
• Try performing a clean boot to determine if it resolves the issue.

• erforming a Clean Boot:

   

   

   
   
  • Click Start Orb > type msconfig in the searchbox 
  • Click msconfig in the search results 
  • Click the General tab, and click Selective Startup
  • Under Selective Startup uncheck Load Startup items
  • Click the Services tab, check the Hide all Microsoft Services box, and then click Disable All
  • Click OK, and when you are prompted, click Restart.
   

   

   

  If the problem does not return while your computer is in clean boot mode, a background program is likely causing interference. You can try to determine which background program is causing the problem while the computer is in clean boot mode.

   

   

   

  To try to determine which background program is causing the problem, start by turning off all drivers, third-party programs or services, and startup items that load with Windows. Then, if the problem is resolved, turn back on half of these services to try  to isolate the interfering service. If the problem is not resolved at this point, you will repeat this process until you have isolated the interfering service. Finally, if you are able to determine which specific program or service is causing the problem,  contact the program manufacturer to determine whether there is a solution. You can also disable the program or service to resolve the problem.

• Enable half of the Services items:

   

   

   

  In this step, you are trying to isolate which background service is causing the interference with the program. Start by turning half of the services on and turning half off.

   

   

   
   
  • Click Start Orb > type msconfig in the searchbox 
  • Click msconfig in the search results 
  • Click the Services tab, check the Hide all Microsoft Services box, and then click to select half of the check boxes in the Services list, leaving the other half unchecked. 
  • Click OK, and when you are prompted, click Restart.

• Determine whether the problem is resolved:

   

   

   

  If the program works after you restart your computer, then you know that the interfering service is not among those services that were turned on. Therefore, it must be among those services that were turned off.

   

   

   

  If the program does not work after you restart the computer, then you know the interfering service may be among the services that were turned on.

   

   

   

  Now that you have eliminated some services as the cause of the problem, you can use a process of elimination to try to determine which service might be causing the problem. You can keep selectively turning services off or on until you isolate a service that  might be causing the interference. To do this, follow these steps:

   

  Start the program and check whether the problem is resolved.

   

  If the problem returns, follow these steps:

   

   

   
   
  • Start the System Configuration Utility. (msconfig) 
   
   
  • Click the Services tab, and then click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box. 
  • Click to clear half of the check boxes that you originally selected in the Services list. 
   
   
  • Click OK, and when you are prompted, click Restart.

• Start the program and check whether the problem is resolved. If the problem returns, one of the services that is turned on may be causing the interference. Continue to repeat steps, turning off services to try to isolate a service that is causing the interference.  If you cannot isolate any one service as the cause of the problem, then these services are likely not causing the interference. If the problem does not return, then one of the services cleared is causing the interference. To isolate that service, follow these  steps:

   

   

   
   
  • Start the System Configuration Utility. (msconfig) 
   
   
  • Click the Services tab, and then click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box. 
   
   
  • Click to select half of the check boxes that you originally cleared in the Services list. 
   
   
  • Click OK, and when you are prompted, click Restart.
   

   

   

  Start the program and check whether the problem is resolved. If the problem returns, one of the services that you selected in step c is an interfering service. Continue to repeat steps, turning off services until you to isolate the service that is causing  interference. If you find that the services in the Services list are not causing this problem, go to "Enable half of the Startup items" to try to determine whether a Startup item is causing the interference. If you were able to isolate a service as causing  the interference with program, go to "Resolve the problem"

• Enable half of the Startup items:

   

   

   

  In this step, you are trying to isolate which Startup item might be causing the interference with the program.

   

  Therefore, start by turning half of the Startup items on and turning half of the items off.

   

   

   
   
  • Start the System Configuration Utility. (msconfig) 
  • Click the Startup tab, and then click to select half of the check boxes in the Startup list. 
  • Click OK, and when you are prompted, click Restart.

• Determine whether the problem is resolved:

   

   

   

  If the program works after you restart your computer, then you know that the interfering service is not among those Startup items that were turned on. Therefore, it must be among those Startup items that were turned off.

   

  Otherwise, if the program does not work after you restart the computer, then you know that the interfering service is among the Startup items that were turned on.

   

   

   

  Now that you have eliminated some Startup items as the cause of the problem, you can use a process of elimination to try to determine which Startup item might be causing the problem. You can keep selectively turning Startup items off or on until you isolate  a service that might be causing the interference.

   

   

   

  Start the program and check whether the problem is resolved.

• If the problem returns, follow these steps:

   

   

   
   
  • Start the System Configuration Utility. (msconfig) 
  • Click the Startup tab. 
  • Click to clear half of the check boxes that you originally selected in the Startup list. 
  • Click OK, and when you are prompted, click Restart.

• Start the program and check whether the problem is resolved. If the problem returns, one of the Startup items that are turned on may be causing the interference. Continue to repeat these steps to isolate. If the problem does not return, then one of the Startup  items cleared previous is an interfering service. To isolate that service, follow these steps:

   

   

   
   
  • Start the System Configuration Utility. (msconfig) 
  • Click the Startup tab. 
  • Click to clear half of the check boxes that you originally selected in the Startup list. 
  • Click OK, and when you are prompted, click Restart.
   

   

   

  Start the program and check whether the problem is resolved. If the problem returns, one of the Startup items that is turned on may be causing interference. Continue to repeat steps a through d, turning off Startup items to try to isolate a service that  is causing interference. If you cannot isolate any one Startup item as the cause of the problem, then these services are likely not causing the interference. If the problem does not return, then one of the Startup items cleared in step 2 is an interfering  service.

• Resolve the problem

   

   

   

  If you determined which specific background program or service is causing the problem, contact the program manufacturer to determine whether the issue can be resolved. Or, you can disable the interfering service in the System Configuration Utility. To disable  the service, follow these steps.

   

   

   
   
  • Start the System Configuration Utility. (msconfig) 
  • Disable the service. 
  • Click OK, and  Restart
• I  suggest to update the display adapter drivers from the manufacturers website.
   
   You can also try with maintenance troubleshooter, follow these steps:
    
   1. Open the Maintenance troubleshooter by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Control Panel.
   2. In the search box, type troubleshooter, and then click Troubleshooting.
   3. Under System and Security, click Run maintenance tasks.
    
   For more help, please visit:
   http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows7/Open-the-System-Maintenance-troubleshooter
• You can also try performing system file checker, follow these steps:
    
   1.Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator.
   2.Click Continue or supply Administrator credentials if prompted.
   3.In the Command Prompt window type the following, and press Enter:
   sfc /scannow
   
   Here is an article that will give you information on SFC Scan:
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/185836/
  
• If you are experiencing slow Windows 7 shutdowns, there is a (fairly) easy way to identify the potential culprit (an antivirus program, driver, or other process).
   
   Navigate to: Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Performance Information and Tools > Advanced Tools. 
   In some cases, this screen will actually display the problem under "Performance Issues."

• Failing that, open the Event Viewer and navigate to:
   Applications and Services Logs>Microsoft>Windows>Diagnostics-Performance>Operational 
   Highlight Critical and Warning events and look at the description below.
   Events in the 100 series are boot events and items in the 200 series are shutdown events. 
   Here's an example from mine:
   
   This application caused a delay in the system shutdown process:

   

  File Name : tomcat6.exe
   Friendly Name : Service Runner
   Version : 2.0.3.0
   Total Time : 4991ms
   Degradation Time : 4491ms
   Incident Time (UTC) : ‎2009‎-‎10‎-‎28T02:26:41.847025800Z
   
   (Oh noes! this program used up more than 4 seconds extra shutting down! It is part of VMWare so ... necessary evil.)

14 more annotations...

• Speed Up Windows 7 – Ultimate Guide To Make Windows 7 Blazing Fast!!!

• The bare Minimum Requirements You need To Run Windows 7

  1) 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
  2) 1GB of main memory
  3) 16GB of available disk space
  4) Support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)
  5) A DVD – R/W drive

• Disabling the Search Indexing Feature in Windows 7

  • Right Click the “Computer” Icon in the desktop and select “Manage”.
  • Click “Services and Applications” in the “Computer Management” window.
  • Click on “Services”.
  • You’d see a lot of services being listed inside the window. Find “Windows Search” from the list.
  • Right Click on “Windows Search” from the list and choose “Properties”.
  • The “Windows Search Properties Window” will open up. From “Startup type” click on the drop down menu and choose “Disabled”.

• Most Windows 7 users are likely to do less file searches in their system. The Search Indexing service in Windows 7 will index and keep track of the files, so that they could be found out quickly when required at some other time. This feature is useful only if you perform frequent searches on your system.
  For occasional file searchers the Search Indexing service in Windows 7 is a total resource hog. It unknowingly eats up your system resources in the background. If what you need from windows 7 is maximum performance, then i would certainly recommend you to disable this resource hogging Windows 7 Search Indexing Feature.

  If you’d like to completely disable the search indexing feature in Windows 7 you may set the Search Indexing Service to Disabled

• Disable the Aero Theme on Windows 7

  • Right Click on your Desktop and select ” Personalize ” click the Window Color Tab.
  • Uncheck the Box saying ” Enable Transparency ” and then click on ” Open classic appearance properties for more color options”.
• The aero user interface certainly adds some ” Eyecandy ” to Windows 7 but it requires a quite powerful hardware to run smoothly.  Older graphics cards would be squeezed to their maximum when aero is forcefully enabled. So why dont we just avoid the Windows 7 aero if what we care more is about speed and performance in Windows 7? So Disabling the Aero in Windows 7 certainly adds an extra speed boost to it.

• Disabling the Unwanted Visual Effects in Windows 7 to Speed Up more

  • Right click on ” Computer” and select “Properties” from the right click menu.
  • Click on ” Advanced System Settings ” from the left pane to open up the ” System Properties ” window.
  • Select the “Advanced” tab from it. Then Under ” Performance ” click ” Settings “. Choose ” Custom: ” Options From it.
  • Now un tick all the options (Choose “Adjust for best performance“) and select only the last four options (actually three are preferable  you may un- tick the second option out of the last four). Take a look at the screen shot below.

• • Disabling the Unwanted Services to Speed up Windows 7

  There are many services in windows 7 that we dont require for our daily use though there are some exceptional cases though. Services such as “print spooler” are used only when there is a need to print a document. If you does’t own a printer, you could safely turn off that service in Windows 7 and turn it on only when there arises a need to take a print.

• Disable the User account control (UAC) Feature in Windows 7

  Disabling UAC is recommended for advanced users only its not recommend doing it if not.
  • From the Control Panel open the ” User Accounts and Family Safety ” > User Account.
  • Click the User Account Control settings link.
  • Now just Drag the Slider towards “Never Notify”.

• SetUp the Windows 7 Ready Boost Service for an Extra Speed Boost

  • To configure the Ready Boost Feature in Windows 7 you need to have a High Speed Flash/USB or Pendrive with you which is ready boost compatible.
  • After plugging your pendrive, open “Computer” > Right-click the on USB Drive/Pendrive > select “Ready Boost” tab > tick the “Use this device” checkbox.
  • You may configure the  amount of space on your USB drive/ Pendrive to be used as Ram.

• • Turn off Unused Windows 7 Features

    • Open up ” Programs and Features ” from Control Panel.
    • Click the ” Turn Windows features on or off ” from the left pane.
    • Now uncheck all the Feature that you don’t use in Windows 7 and restart the system for the changes to take effect.

  There are many features in windows 7 that we often don’t use. Disabling these unused features in Windows 7  would help in speeding things up.

• • Speeding Up, Tweaking and Optimizing Your SSD

  If you’ve got a new ssd for your system, then you’d definitely consider checking out this guide which explains 9 tweaks to properly speed up, optimize your ssd and prolong the life of your ssd, while getting the best performance from it.

• • Disable the Windows 7 Sidebar (The Gadgets)

    • Right click on the sidebar and choose ” Properties “.
    • On the properties windows untick the check box showing ” Start sidebar when Windows Starts “
    • From now on windows sidebar won’t start when windows 7 start up.

  Disabling the window 7 sidebar help you free up resources and gain a few more seconds during start up time.

• • Disable the Aero Peek and Aero Snap features in Windows 7

    Aero Snap will help you to maximize, minimize and resize the windows just by dragging and dropping it into the screen corners.
    I dont advice to turn it off as the Aero Snap feature really helps to speed up working with windows by arranging them side by side. But, if you are not a regular user of the same, you may proceed by turning of aero snap in windows 7.
    • Open the Windows 7 ” Control Panel ” and double-click on ” Ease of Access Center ” icon.
    • Now click on the ” Make it easier to focus on tasks ” seen at the bottom in there
    • Now untick the check box saying ” Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen ” .
    • Right click on the Windows 7 taskbar and select ” Properties “.
    • Now untick the ” Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop ” option from there.

  That will now disable the Aero Snap in Windows 7.

• Now To Disable the Aero Peek feature in Windows 7

  The Aero Peek feature in Windows 7 helps you to peek through all open windows by hiding all other windows and showing only the outlines of all windows. Aero Peek is similar to the ” Show Desktop ” Feature in XP and Vista.

  If you have followed step 3 then Aero Peek will be automatically disabled. If not,

  Right Click the Taskbar and choose Properties. Un-select the ”Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop” option.

  The aero peek feature will now be disabled in windows 7.

• Change the Power Plan To Maximum Performance

  • Double click the ” Power Options ” in the Control panel.
  • Click the down arrow showing ” Show Additional Plans ” to see the ” High Performance ” power plan.
• • Now just activate the ” High Performance ” plan and that’s it.
  • You may go for the advanced settings for further tweaking if you want.
• The Power settings in Windows 7 is not automatically set for maximum performance. By default the power plan in Windows 7 is set for a balanced performance with energy consumption on hardware. So you may not get the optimal performance from windows 7 if this is the case. So we need to change the power plan to High Performance Mode.

• Disable the Thumbnail Preview Feature to speed up File browsing in Windows 7

  For disabling thumbnails in Windows 7,
  • Double Click on ” Computer ” >click on the “Organize” drop-down menu and select the “Folder and Search options”
  • Under ‘Files and Folders’ section, go to the “View” tab and tick the check box showing “Always show icons, never thumbnails” checkbox.
• he thumbnail preview feature in Windows 7 will show the small thumbnails of the contents of a folder instead of showing it’s icon. But this feature really do take up some system resources. So by disabling the Thumbnail Preview feature in Windows 7 the file browsing in Windows 7 explorer can be speed up.

• • Turn OFF Windows 7 Password Protection To save a few More Seconds!!!

  If you’ve set a password for accessing your user account in windows 7, then you need to enter it each and every time you login to windows. Logging into windows automatically without entering any password will save you a few seconds more. If you are the only person who use your computer then i’d recommend to turn this off. If that is not the case you may skip this step.

• • Turn OFF Windows 7 Screen Saver and Wallpaper

    To Disable The Screen Saver and Wallpaper in Windows 7,
    • Right click on desktop and choose “Personalize”.
    • Click the Screen Saver link ” From the Screen Saver drop down menu, Set it to “None” and click “Apply” and then “OK”.
    • Now click on “Desktop Background” link.
    • From the “Location” drop down menu select “Solid Colors” and pick one color and click “OK”.

  In order to display the wallpaper and screen saver the system needs some memory. So by disabling those two we can save a few Mega Bytes of memory.

• • Disable Unwanted Start Up Items and Speed Up Windows 7 Start Up

    • Type ” msconfig ” in the “RUN” option from start menu press [Enter] to open up the System Configuration Utility.
    • Now navigate to the “StartUp” tab.
    • Untick the Entries which are not needed

  This really matters when you have installed a lot of softwares on your PC. Many software such as AcdSee will run services such as device detector etc during the system start up. These are of no use actually for most windows users. So preventing such services from starting up during the start up of windows 7 can result in quicker start Ups. This will actually save some seconds during windows 7 start up.

• To disable the system sounds in Windows 7,

  • Type mmsys.cpl in RUN From the Windows 7 Startmenu search box and press [Enter].
  • Navigate to the “Sounds” tab.
  • Now from under “Sound Scheme:” select “No Sounds” > Click “Apply” > “OK”.

22 more annotations...

• 10 ways to speed up Windows 7

• 1: Disable unnecessary services

   

  Not every system service that is running on a stock Windows 7 machine is necessary. A number of services can either be disabled or modified to run only when needed

• 10+ Windows 7 services you may not need

• 1: IP Helper

   

  Windows description: Provides tunnel connectivity using IPv6 transition technologies (6to4, ISATAP, Port Proxy, and Teredo) and IP-HTTPS. If this service is stopped, the computer will not have the enhanced connectivity benefits that these technologies offer.

   

  Why this can be disabled: Many organizations haven’t even started testing IPv6, much less fully deployed it. As indicated in the service description, the IP Helper service is leveraged in IPv4-to-IPv6 transitions.

• 2: Offline Files

   

  Windows description: The Offline Files service performs maintenance activities on the Offline Files cache, responds to user logon and logoff events, implements the internals of the public API, and dispatches interesting events to those interested in Offline Files activities and changes in cache state.

   

  Why this can be disabled: If your organization doesn’t use the Offline Files feature found in both Windows client and server products, this service can be safely disabled. Obviously, if you are synchronizing files across the network, you shouldn’t disable this service.

• 3: Network Access Protection Agent

   

  Windows description: The Network Access Protection (NAP) agent service collects and manages health information for client computers on a network. Information collected by the NAP agent is used to make sure that the client computer has the required software and settings. If a client computer is not compliant with health policy, it can be provided with restricted network access until its configuration is updated. Depending on the configuration of health policy, client computers might be automatically updated so that users quickly regain full network access without having to manually update their computer.

   

  Why this can be disabled: If you’re not doing network-based remediation or if you’re doing remediation with a third-party tool that doesn’t leverage the NAP client, this service can be disabled.

• 4: Parental Controls

   

  Windows description: This service is a stub for Windows Parental Control functionality that existed in Vista. It is provided for backward compatibility only.

   

  Why this can be disabled: Corporate networks rarely used Vista’s Parental Control functionality. Further, this is a legacy service from Windows Vista.

• 5: Smart Card

   

  Windows description: Manages access to smart cards read by this computer. If this service is stopped, this computer will be unable to read smart cards. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

   

  Why this can be disabled: If your organization does not use smart cards for authentication purposes, you can safely disable this service.

• 6: Smart Card Removal Policy

   

  Windows description: Allows the system to be configured to lock the user desktop upon smart card removal.

   

  Why this can be disabled: If your organization does not use smart cards for authentication purposes, you can safely disable this service

• 7: Windows Media Center Receiver Service

   

  Windows description: Windows Media Center Service for TV and FM broadcast reception.

   

  Why this can be disabled: In most corporate environments, TV and FM broadcast reception on desktop computers is not considered a “business critical” item that needs support, and it’s often not allowed anyway. You can disable this service to save some resources.

• 8: Windows Media Center Scheduler Service

   

  Windows description: Starts and stops recording of TV programs within Windows Media Center.

   

  Why this can be disabled: Likewise, there’s no need to record TV programs in a corporate environment.

• 9: Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service

   

  Windows description: Shares Windows Media Player libraries to other networked players and media devices using Universal Plug and Play.

   

  Why this can be disabled: On a corporate network, Windows Media Player doesn’t have nearly the place it might have on a home network. Disabling this service will have no impact on business activities.

• 10: Fax

   

  Windows description: Enables you to send and receive faxes, utilizing fax resources available on this computer or on the network.

   

  Why this can be disabled: If your organization is not using a network-based faxing service, disabling this service will have no business impact.

• 11: HomeGroup Listener

   

  Windows description: Makes local computer changes associated with configuration and maintenance of the homegroup-joined computer. If this service is stopped or disabled, your computer will not work properly in a homegroup and your homegroup might not work properly. It is recommended that you keep this service running.

   

  Why this can be disabled: It’s highly unlikely that a business organization — except a very small one — is using HomeGroups as a way to share resources on a network. It’s almost always safe to disable this service in a business setting.

• 12: HomeGroup Provider

   

  Windows description: Performs networking tasks associated with configuration and maintenance of homegroups. If this service is stopped or disabled, your computer will be unable to detect other homegroups and your homegroup might not work properly. It is recommended that you keep this service running.

   

  Why this can be disabled: As noted above: Only very small organizations are likely to use HomeGroups to share resources on a network, so it’s almost always safe to disable this service in a business setting.

• 13: Tablet PC Input Service

   

  Windows description: Enables Tablet PC pen and ink functionality.

   

  Why this can be disabled: The vast majority of PCs that are deployed to users do not have hardware that can leverage tablet-like capability. This service simply uses system resources with no possible benefit.

12 more annotations...