Every user has at least once felt the consequences of problems at work. software computer. And it doesn’t matter whether the PC is used for work, for games, or as a multimedia center, the skills of quickly solving problems will make life easier for everyone. This article will discuss a fairly popular question: why does Windows 7 take so long to shut down?
Before we begin describing the causes and troubleshooting options, it must be said that the duration of the PC shutdown depends on its characteristics. The more powerful the hardware, the faster the presented procedure will be performed. The computer usually shuts down within 12-30 seconds. In addition to hardware components, the duration of the shutdown is influenced by the parameters and Windows settings. It is logical that if the PC hardware is not the most up-to-date, the shutdown time will be longer. However, if the most modern one still takes longer than 30 seconds to shutdown, troubleshooting and optimization becomes necessary.
Main reasons
Often the main reason why Windows 7 takes a long time to shut down is a large number of running programs and processes. This happens because the operating system is trying not only to close them, but also to save all their data and reports. Accordingly, a larger number of applications means a longer shutdown time.
Software conflict
The second popular reason is a software conflict. One application can hinder the whole operating system during shutdown. And until such a conflict is resolved, the computer will not turn off, and at the same time its shutdown time will increase. This is the same problem you should look for if Windows 7 freezes when shutting down. Often, such conflicts occur if the program freezes or does not allow its process to be terminated forcibly. Very often, such programs are products that change the decoration and design of Windows.
First, try closing everything manually before running programs, maybe after these actions the computer will turn off noticeably faster.
To solve this kind of problem, you need to analyze your manipulations that were performed on the computer. It is quite possible that not long ago a new driver or program was installed into the system, or a new device was installed in the expansion slot. Simply uninstalling the most recently installed programs and components is often sufficient. If that doesn't help, try rolling back to a previous restore point.
Take out the trash regularly
If the computer turns off for a long time, Windows 7 may be to blame. For example, after some time, a large amount of “garbage” accumulates in the system. This usually happens due to installing and uninstalling programs, installing updates, and a large number. Also, the OS may crash when shutting down if its system files are damaged.
To solve the problem, use regularly special utilities, which clean the OS, removing remnants of previously uninstalled programs, unused drivers, and correcting registry errors. CCleaner is considered one of the best.
Malware
If your computer takes a long time to shut down, Windows 7 may be responding to a virus infection in this way. They almost always work in active mode: they block system processes, do not allow themselves to be “killed,” and if the malicious program can be terminated, it immediately starts again. Very often, such viruses inject their code into your computer, and the presence of an antivirus never guarantees absolute protection.
Perform a full scan of your PC for malware antivirus distribution, which is loaded from a flash drive or disk. The antivirus used in the system may be infected, and therefore will only create the appearance of protection. Always download only the most latest versions similar applications with the latest virus databases. The most popular and effective program of this kind is Cureit.
Try to check the processes in the task manager yourself; it is quite possible that by ending the suspicious program, the computer will turn off quickly and the problematic component will be found.
Drivers
The last non-obvious reason why Windows 7 takes a long time to shut down is problematic drivers. They may be installed with errors or damaged in the process Windows operation, modified by viruses, even if malware were immediately deleted.
Try downloading and running the DriveCleanup program, it is distributed free of charge and can be run on any OS Windows family. While running, the application removes all unused drivers from the system, and after finishing its work, you must restart the computer.
Obvious reasons
There is not enough free space on drive C. Accordingly, the computer takes a long time to turn off. Windows 7 simply does not have enough free space to record and save all the settings, so the system must first delete old temporary files. Try to increase the amount of free space, especially since experts Microsoft It is recommended to leave about five gigabytes unused.
You can remove programs or games that have not been used for a long time, leave only the last system restore point, delete the update cache, clear unnecessary files"Downloads" directory.
In addition to everything that was mentioned above, the overall stability of the operating system is affected by the dustiness of the system unit. If the radiators have not been purged for a long time, and the contacts are random access memory If the computer has not been serviced at the wiping level for a long time, the computer may begin to overheat, which leads to various types of failures.
This preventive measure can solve many problems, because programs work thanks to hardware capabilities. Often, solving a problem only by cleaning the operating system from garbage, the user forgets that garbage can accumulate in the operating system itself. system unit. This advice is especially relevant if you have been using Windows 7 for a long time, so it may not have anything to do with it.
Smart-Tronics! Does your computer take a long time to turn off? Tired of waiting? Find out a simple solution to the problem that does not require special operating system skills. Over time, the Windows registry “collects” unnecessary information that remains from old, already remote programs. They also interfere with turning off the computer installed programs, which the system must first unload from memory, completing correctly.
As a result, the computer shutdown time increases significantly. Agree, this is very annoying, especially when you need to do other things. But this problem can be solved, and quite simply. This article will tell you how to reduce Windows shutdown time. If yours, then this is a completely different problem, which you can read about at the link. Here's what you can do to reduce Windows shutdown time.
What can you do when your computer turns off for a long time?
1. First of all, let's remove all unnecessary programs from startup. After a long using Windows, a large number of programs appear in startup, many of which do not belong there. Moreover, they do not ask the user’s permission whether to include them in startup or not. It's easy to remove unnecessary programs and speed up your computer when it's been turned off for a long time. This is done through the “msconfig” command. If you have Windows XP, type this command through “Start → Run”. If Windows 7, you need to enter the command in the “Search programs and files” item, also through Start. A window with bookmarks will appear. Go to the “Startup” tab and uncheck the unnecessary programs. By the way, this method, can be used when the computer takes a long time to turn on, but this is a topic for a separate article.
2. Let's reduce the time after which a service or program will be considered frozen. The default is 20 seconds. You can reduce it, for example, by 5 seconds. This is done in Windows registry, which is called by the "regedit" command. This registry key for both Windows XP and Windows 7 is located in the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\
Key WaitToKillServiceTimeout. Set it to 8000 milliseconds, which will reduce the shutdown time of a frozen program by 12 seconds.
3. Let's find another key - HungAppTimeout, which is responsible for the time it takes to determine that a program or service has frozen. The default is 5 seconds. You can reduce this time as you wish, but it is better to set it to 3000 milliseconds.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
4. The last key that can be changed to get rid of long computer shutdowns is WaitToKillAppTimeout. Responsible for the time before shutting down an application that has frozen. Defaults to 20 seconds (20000 milliseconds). Can be reduced to 6 seconds. It is located in the same place as the WaitToKillServiceTimeout key.
All these simple measures should help if the computer takes a long time to turn off!
The problem appears to users more and more often the longer they use the computer. So, usually, the computer turns off for a long time after six months or more of using the system, sometimes earlier. It's obvious that Windows just can't handle applications. There is a certain pattern in the number of applications and the speed of turning on/off the computer.
If the system begins to shut down longer than during previous uses, then most likely the culprit will be the program that runs in background. Also common reasons are: failures in the operating system itself, system clogging, too little memory left, and other similar situations.
Now let’s take a look at why the computer takes a long time to turn off and how to deal with it. Common causes of the problem will be presented, and only those that do not require risky action.
Why does my computer take a long time to turn off?
Usually the computer takes a long time to shut down in Windows xp or other versions due to the presence of unnecessary and heavily loading programs, less often the cause is crashes. In fact, the topic is extensive, but it’s really easy to speed up your computer in ways that boil down to freeing up resources.
Why does my computer take a long time to turn off? – The reason is that there are many programs that operate without the user’s knowledge, perhaps a broken application. Less often, the root of the problem lies in faulty drivers or system infection.
To speed up shutdown, you can clean up programs by pressing Win + R and typing msconfig. Now go to Startup. Uncheck any apps that you don't use regularly. Ideally, only working applications, antivirus and drivers should remain.
At the end of the procedure, you should further clean the debris from the system. To avoid doing this manually, run a scan in the popular CCleaner utility.
Cleaning the system of unnecessary programs
You can simply delete applications that are not in demand or you no longer need, or disable their autorun. These actions will be equivalent in effectiveness (except for heavy programs), but the last option will help you save the application in case it comes in handy. So first of all check:
- Windows + R and msconfig;
- Now uncheck the box next to unnecessary applications.
Be sure to leave the drivers for sound and video, which are called Realtek and Nvidia (for Geforce), respectively. You can safely remove all other applications from autorun, since even if it turns out that you need the program, you can always return it.
Cleaning the system of debris
Quite often it takes a long time to turn off Windows computer 7 and other versions of the system due to the presence of pieces of programs or applications. In other words, when you install a program, it places a lot of information on the system that is necessary for its work, and during the uninstallation process, not everything is erased. This leaves auto-updaters and their services, DirectX components, Visual C++, etc. Up to a certain point, this is not a problem, but when many such tasks accumulate, lags and similar to our situation may be noticed.
First, let's clean the system of temporary files, cache, etc. For this we will use CCleaner.
- Download the program from the link https://files.totalsoft.org/C/CCleaner/ccsetup522.zip;
- You don’t have to change the position of the checkboxes, just click “Analyze”;
- Now the search will start, when it is finished, click “Run Cleaner”.
This will help clean up the system, but the problem is not fixed yet. Now you just need to delete everything unnecessary applications, then take up the services until you see an improvement.
You can remove applications:
- "Control Panel" from Start;
- Find the Programs and Features tile;
- Move the selection to the desired position and click "Delete".
You can stop services:
- On the “Control Panel”, select the “Administration” link;
- Now the “Services” item;
- Right-click on the desired element and “Stop”.
To kill processes, you can use the regular Task Manager, but it does not have the function of displaying the path to the executable file. Therefore you need to use third party program AnVir Task Manager.
- Download the utility here https://www.anvir.net/downloads/anvirrus.exe;
- Launch it and you will see the same dispatcher, only more advanced. Choose unnecessary processes, find the executable files and delete them first in the application, then from the computer.
First of all, we are interested in programs, components and services that take up a lot of system resources and are not useful. Another likely problem why the computer takes a long time to turn off may be useful programs, which simply freeze during any action, in our case closing.
Removing frozen programs
Usually, it is quite simple to determine that an application has frozen; before shutting down, the window says “Waiting to close programs” and a list of them. Sometimes, the problem is more complex because a process or service is hanging, then you should first identify the cause. You can do this by viewing the logs:
1.Click the Start button and select “Control Panel”;
2.Now click on the “Administration” tile;
3.Select “Event Viewer”;
4.Open the “Custom Views” folder;
5.Click on “Management Events”.
You need to look for errors that precede situations when your Windows 10 or other versions turn off for a long time. After identifying the culprit, uninstall/reinstall/update the application and the problem should disappear, as described in the last chapter.
Video driver problems
With some lags in video drivers, there is a problem when the computer turns off for a long time (Windows 7,8,8.1,10). To get rid of the problem, you just need to update and sometimes roll back the drivers.
- Right click on “My Computer” and select “Properties”;
- Now click on “Device Manager”;
- Expand the “Video adapters” drop-down list;
- If there is yellow next to the line with the name of your video card Exclamation point, then you definitely have problems with the driver, but it may not exist. Right click and “Properties”;
- Then go to the "Driver" tab;
- Click the "Update" button.
If the problem occurred immediately after installing the new driver, then click “Roll Back”. Also, if these steps do not help, simply uninstall and install it again.
Too little free space
The system logical disk must contain at least 5GB of free space for normal system operation. If this requirement is not met, situations may arise with the computer shutting down for a long time.
The solution is clear, you just need to clean the disk, if you install games on it, just move them to another partition, the same with “heavy” programs. This free space is used for the paging file under heavy load, and it is also necessary for disk defragmentation.
System infection with viruses
More often than we would like, computers become infected with viruses, including those that take up a lot of computer power, making it difficult to turn it off. The easiest way to get rid of them is to simply run an antivirus scanner. Be careful when deleting infected files, as they may be important to applications.
The other side of the coin will be a decrease in the system shutdown speed precisely because antivirus program, because it requires a lot of resources. Perhaps the problem arose after installing such an application; usually the speed decreases by 2-10 seconds.
Lowering the program waiting threshold
By default, 12 seconds will pass before the computer displays a message that the program is not responding. If this number is changed to, for example, 5 seconds, then even a frozen application will close faster, which will help with our problem. It’s better to understand the program itself, but this method also works.
- Win + R and type regedit;
- Follow the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - SYSTEM - CurrentControlSet - Control – WaitToKillServiceTimeout;
- You need to find the WaitToKillServiceTimeout parameter and set it to 5000, or 4000.
Cancel Memory Clear
It was originally intended that when shutting down the virtual memory should be cleared, this function can be disabled, which will lead to faster system shutdown. You can do it like this:
- Win + R and enter gpedit.msc;
- Proceed to “Computer Configuration”;
- Now open Windows Configuration;
- Then “Security Settings”;
- Open "Local Policies";
- Finally, “Security Options” on the right side of the window there will be an option appropriately named “shutdown: clear virtual memory file”, select it with a right click and “Properties”;
- Check the box next to "Disabled".
There are several other ways to speed up the shutdown of your computer, but the risk they involve does not justify the result, plus by using these functions you will get a significant increase in speed. If this does not happen, then the problem is in the files of the operating system itself, you can scan it using sfc teams/scannow by entering it into the console. You may need to reinstall the system.
If you still have questions on the topic “What to do if the computer turns off for a long time?”, you can ask them in the comments
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If computer shuts down slowly(or doesn't shut down at all), starts up slowly, or doesn't go into power saving mode, the device driver or program may be conflicting with the Windows voltage rating.
You can try using performance management tools to identify such program and device drivers.
To test performance
If a program or driver is preventing your computer from turning on quickly
You can try to solve the problem as follows:
- Controlling applications that run at startup. Some programs start automatically when Windows startup. A large number of such applications can slow down your computer. To disable programs from starting at system boot and improve performance, use Windows Defender. additional information see Stop programs from starting automatically when Windows starts.
- Contact the developer program or driver update
If a program or driver is preventing your computer from shutting down quickly
You can try to solve the problem in the following way:
- Close before shutting down. The problem may only occur while the program is running. Try closing the program before shutting down Windows and check if the computer now shuts down correctly.
- Contact the developer programs or drivers to receive updates. A new version program may help solve the problem.
If these steps do not resolve the problem, the program or driver may not compatible with Windows. If you installed a program or device yourself and you no longer use it, disconnect the device or remove the driver.
When Windows is running, it is not excluded that, after finishing work, the computer does not automatically disconnect from the power supply. That is, after entering the “Start” menu, then “Shut down,” saving the settings and changing the message to “Shut down Windows,” the computer does not disconnect from the network, or the computer takes a long time to shut down.
When the mouse is active, this message can hang indefinitely, and you can disconnect the computer from the power supply only by pressing and holding the power button for four seconds. This problem most often occurs among laptop owners or after installing (reinstalling) the operating system. To eliminate this inconvenience, you can use one of the methods in which we can give some basic recommendations.
Method one , which most often helps solve this problem for laptop users. The problem is resolved by disabling the power management function of the USB hub. This function is used to save and extend battery life. But not all devices that connect to USB ports, can work with it correctly. By disabling this function, the user sacrifices battery life, but the computer will shut down correctly.
- right-click on the manipulator (mouse) "My computer" , and then sequentially: Properties > Hardware > Device Manager ;
- unfolding "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" , right-click on the manipulator "USB root hub" , and then go to point "Properties" ;
- open ;
- uncheck the function and then click on "OK" .
The proposed sequence of actions must be performed with each root USB hub in this computer.
Second way . You must disable those applications and services that the system was unable to complete before the shutdown action. Check for errors in the Event Log: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer magazines "System" And "Applications" . In some cases, the system is not able to close any of the services or applications, and if it causes a conflict, and there is no particular need for it, then you can simply disable it.
Disabling services: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services , then a list of services should open where you can view them short description. Double-click on the service causing the conflict, open the window and in the tab "Are common" let's go to "Startup type" and select the function there "Disabled." To save the new settings, click on "Apply" .
Third way used to reduce the waiting time for the process of closing programs when the system enters the shutdown stage. If this arouses curiosity in anyone, you can refer to its contents:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
"AutoEndTasks"="1?
“WaitToKillServiceTimeout”=”5000?
“HungAppTimeout”=”5000?
“WaitToKillAppTimeout”=”5000?
First parameter value "AutoEndTasks" - closing frozen programs without warnings. The purpose of other parameters is to set the timeout for the process of closing applications and services to five seconds, rather than the default twenty.
Fourth method implies the inclusion of ACPI in the BIOS, which is applicable only in cases where an inscription appears indicating at what point the computer is allowed to turn off the power ( “You can now turn off the computer’s power.” ). Settings are made in the BIOS, in the power management section. In some cases BIOS settings needs to be reset and returned to factory defaults. The BIOS settings menu and call keys may differ. It depends on which model motherboard The computer is also supplied from the manufacturer. In this case, you should carefully read the manual supplied with your computer.
