How To Shutdown Windows XP or Vista Instantly

Similar to our article on the Windows Task Manager. Users using Windows XP or Vista experience delays in closing programs, and their system. Just like our Windows Task Manager tutorial, there is a similar way of forcing Windows to shut down without wait every time. Follow this simple tweak tutorial and your Windows OS will shut down without hefty delay!

Windows is designed to give programs time to close. This is Microsoft's fail safe to make sure that nothing goes wrong when closing programs and to prevent you from losing information. It's simple why they would do this, they don't want that college student finishing the 3,000 word report at the last minute to lose all his work. Well, more so Microsoft doesn't want anyone to hear about it including their customers. They have done a great job in protecting loss of data and allowing programs to terminate in sequence. Since many users would rather have their computer shutdown/restart on command, including myself, I will provide you with this tutorial. The Windows XP and Windows Vista guides are exactly similar, the only difference is how you get to your registry editor.

Note: Today we will be editing the registry, so remember to be careful and follow what I say closely to prevent any harm to your system. The odds of anything going wrong are around 1/100 if you follow correctly.

Windows XP
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type in Regedit, (Welcome to the Registry!)
3. Collapse, (click the +), HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then collapse Control Panel.
4. Click on the folder "Desktop". Locate WaitToKillAppTimeout in the window on the right of your registry editor. Which is highlighted in the picture to the side.
5. Right click on WaitToKillAppTimeout and click Modify from the drop down. Change the Value Date number to a number between 1,000 and 2,000. Then click Ok. This is the time in milliseconds that Windows waits for applications on shutdown.
6. In the same window as WaitToKillAppTimeout, locate HungAppTimeOut.
7. Once again, right click on this string and click Modify. Change this value from 1,500 to 2,000. NOTE: You now won't have much problems in ending programs normally with Windows Task Manager. HungAppTimeOut's value is the amount of time that your OS will wait on unresponsive programs.
8. Close registry editor, and test it out without closing any programs that don't require you to save anything.

Windows Vista
1. Click Start, then enter in the search box "regedit."
2. Click on the resulting regedit, which should load the Registry Editor.
3. Collapse, (click the +), HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then collapse Control Panel.
4. Click on the folder "Desktop". Locate WaitToKillAppTimeout in the window on the right of your registry editor. Which is highlighted in the picture above.
5. Right click on WaitToKillAppTimeout and click Modify from the drop down. Change the Value Date number to a number between 1,000 and 2,000. Then click Ok. This is the time in milliseconds that Windows Vista waits for applications on shutdown.
6. In the same window as WaitToKillAppTimeout, locate HungAppTimeOut.
NOTE: You now won't have much problems in ending programs normally with Windows Task Manager. HungAppTimeOut's value is the amount of time that your OS will wait on unresponsive programs.
7. Once again, right click on this string and click Modify. Change this value from 1,500 to 2,000.
8. Close registry editor, test it out without closing any programs that don't require you to save anything.

Remember to bookmark us! When you comeback check out our other guides and fine tune your PC using registry editor, and more!

Indexing Annoyance

What is Indexing and what does this have to do with tweaking your Windows OS for the better? Well, Windows Indexing is a Windows Service that runs in the background constantly maintaining and organizing the files on your hard drive. This way when you want to search for these files the search locates files a great deal faster. The Windows based search that is, the one you probably find yourself using about once a month.

Why we want to shut this is off is simple, the Indexing Service runs in the background and is not useful to most users. Window's search function will still work perfectly, it will only be slower in delivering results. Aside from the CPU memory it takes up, Indexing also causes your hard drive to make noise. When your computer is idle you can hear the hard drive making noises, alot of the times it is because this service is running. Indexing is designed to run especially when the computer is idle, idealistically to cause the least inconvenience. But on both Windows XP and Vista, this service can be caught running frequently while you are using the computer.

This tweak is for Windows XP and Windows Vista, and can be reversed easily at anytime, with no risk to harming your computer. Update: Sometimes exceptionally slow computers will load on start up slower by turning indexing off, if this happens you may want to turn indexing back on. You won't know until you restart after turning indexing off. Keep in mind this is rare.

Windows XP
1. Open My Computer so that you can see all of your hard drives.

2. Right click on a hard drive, and click Properties.

3. At the bottom of the window that appears, which should look like the one to the right, at the bottom uncheck "Allow Indexing..."

4. There will be a prompt showing that it is making a changes, let it go, it won't take long. If you get any Access Denied errors, just click ignore all.

5. Repeat this for all of your hard drives and your Done!







Windows Vista
1. Go to start and in the search menu type in "Windows Search Service" without the quotes.

2. Right Click on the result, and click Properties.

3. In the drop down menu next to Startup type, select Disabled.

4. At the lower part of the window, select Stop to stop the service from running. If for any reason you want to change this, repeat the steps to turn Indexing back on.

5. Click Apply and then Ok.

Disabling Indexing is argued if it really does improve performance on your system. The answer is most likely but not always, Indexing occurs in Profiles, Documents, Start Menu, E-mails and a few other areas. If your computer is very robust in these areas, disabling this service will affect performance. Many people though, see great results in disabling Indexing. Digg it.

Start Menu Speed Tweak

Do you have an overly obese Start Menu? Well depending on it's size, and your computers RAM, you might be interested in this little tweak. Please note, anytime you mess around with the registry you are taking a risk. The registry holds all the values of the inter workings of windows and should only be edited with caution. The danger of messing your computer up on this specific tweak is about 1/50.

The first tweak is for Windows XP users only, you shouldn't have the need to speed up versions below XP because their start menu has virtually no lag. As for Windows Vista, that tweak will be our second tweak, both are similar but the interfaces are still different. Pick the appropriate one to follow based on your Windows OS. Windows Vista is exactly similar in that you are doing exactly the same thing. Changing the same value, using the same registry editor, the only slight difference is how you open Registry Editor. I felt my reader's should be able to look at the exact method, clearing up any fog between the two ;).

What these tweaks do is very simple. Similar to our Firefox and IE speed tweak, this changes the delay put in default by Microsoft before the Start Menu is loaded. Instantly could cause problems and demand too much from some computers, so the delay they selected is basically a safe number. You will not ruin your computer doing this most likely in anyway. So long as you stick to where I guide you and change only what I tell you to, we will be fine and you will have a great outcome ;).

Windows XP
1. Go to Run by clicking Start and clicking on Run....
2. Type in "regedit" without the quotes and click Ok.
3. Welcome to the notorious Registry Editor, home of the advanced computer settings.
4. Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER at the top left of the folder hierarchy, it should stand out along with 2 other keys: Classes_Root, Local_Machine, _Users, and Current_Config. NOTE: It may not show some of these values if you've messed with the registry before, but if thats the case then you should know how to fold them back up to view the main Keys by double clicking on the main folders.
5. Double click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER to make it drop or "collapse" the list of folders.
6. Next, "collapse" the control panel folder by clicking on the plus next to it, or double clicking it.
7. Now collapse the Desktop folder and locate this value name in the right list. It should look like this:MenuShowDelay which will have a default Data Value of 400. This 400 is the delay value that we want to change!
8. Right Click on the string MenuShowDelay (it's name), and click Modify.
9. Enter a new value from about 50-75.
10. Click Ok and you're done! You will now notice as LARGE difference in the menu loading speed. Specifically the "All Programs" menu.
11. You may or may not have to log off and back onto your XP account to see a difference.


Windows Vista
1. Click Start and in the Search box type in "regedit" without the quotes of course.
2. Regedit will appear in the results, double click on it.
3. Welcome to the notorious Registry Editor, home of the advanced computer settings.
4. Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER at the top left of the folder heirarachy, it should stand out along with 2 other keys: Classes_Root, Local_Machine, _Users, and Current_Config. NOTE: It may not show some of these values if you've messed with the registry before, but if thats the case then you should know how to fold them back up to view the main Keys by double clicking on the main folders.
5. Double click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER to make it drop or "collapse" the list of folders.
6. Next, "collapse" the control panel folder by clicking on the plus next to it, or double clicking it.
7. Now collapse the Desktop folder and locate this value name in the right list. It should look like this:
MenuShowDelay which will have a default Data Value of 400. This 400 is the delay value that we want to change!
8. Right Click on the string MenuShowDelay (it's name), and click Modify.
9. Enter a new value from about 50-75.
10. Click Ok and you're done! You will now notice as LARGE difference in the menu loading speed. Specifically the "All Programs" menu.
11. You may have to log on and back off to see any results.

Speed Up Webpage Loading in IE and Firefox

Wishing the top web browsers would receive a tune up from Microsoft or Mozilla? Try this tweak you can do yourself. Version is irrelevant for Firefox as these modifications work with the versions that have been out for a couple years. These modifications are pretty popular, and can be seen throughout the internet. They specifically involve modifying the "internet" part of the programs, not so much the physical memory that it takes from your computer. Simply put, these little tricks will load web pages faster, but wont load the programs themselves any faster. Before each modification, I will describe what is being done just so you get an idea of what you are doing. These tweaks will not cause harm to your computer.

Firefox

Lets start with the up roaring favorite, Firefox. This first step will change the amount of requests sent for a web page. Essentially this is set somewhat low to begin with, to help the website the user will be viewing. If your browser requests the web page like this it will take slightly more bandwidth from the page, for your benefit, these modifications ARE NOT ILLEGAL, so there is no reason to worry about any of this.

1. Open your Firefox browser.
2. In the browser bar, or where the http and www. goes, type about:config and hit enter or make it load as if it was a web page.
3. In the filter bar, type "pipe" and let it search for anything that matches this word.
4. Three results should appear and make the appropriate change per entry
network.http.pipelining -- Right click the "False" and click "Toggle" in the drop down menu so that the value becomes true.
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests -- Right click on the number and click "Modify", then enter an appropriate number, I suggest 35.
network.http.proxy.pipelining -- Right click the "False" and click "Toggle" in the drop down menu so that the value becomes true.

And your done! This tweak will be most noticeable to broadband users, but has a great impact on all internet users.

Our second tweak involves the same field of stuff as the first. Once again,
1. Open your Firefox browser.
2. In the browser bar, or where the http and www. goes, type about:config and hit enter or make it load as if it was a web page.
3. Right click anywhere under the "preference name" tab, and highlight New in the drop down, and select integer.
4. For the name, enter "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" without the quotes.
5. It should then ask for a value, put 0.

What this will do, is change the amount of time the information recieved is processed. It is like changing the amount of time your mailman takes to give you the letter for you to open, the shorter the wait, the faster he delivers.

Internet Explorer

Now, for Internet Explorer. This specific tweak has ONLY been tested for Internet Explorer 7, so although it most likely will not damage any earlier versions, I recommend ONLY using this if you have Internet Explorer 7.

1. Open your basic Notepad.
2. Enter this code

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]
“MaxConnectionsPerServer”=dword:00000010
“MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server”=dword:0000010

3. Go to save as, and save this as IEtweak.REG make sure it is .REG at the end, this tells the computer that it is designed to change a setting in the registry. Save this to your desktop. The picture should become something resembling a blue block, but it may vary depending on your OS.
4. Double click this file, and a message should prompt you by default confirming the changes, accept them, and you are done.

What this will do is similar to the first Firefox tweak, edit the connection limit to a sizable amount as compared to the default 2. Remember, this tweak will not speed up the program itself, but rather the web pages it loads. All of these tweaks modify the same basic limits set by default to avoid miscellaneous things. Again, none of these are illegal and they will ONLY affect the speed of the web pages loaded. In the future I will add a list of tweaks and modifications that will allow the programs themselves to load faster. Which of course we all know is really only needed for IE anyway ;).