Switch off hangs for unclosed background programs

ian doughy · 27 Jan 2016

OS Windows 7 64 bit auto updated
All applications closed
Switch off
Screen :-
=======================================================
Waiting for background programs to close

(No programs indicated)

To close the program that is preventing Windows from
shutting down, click cancel, and then close the program

Force shut down Cancel
========================================================
Click on Force shut down
Screen :-
========================================================
Waiting for background programs to close

(No programs indicated)

If you force shut down you may lose work that you havn't saved
Do you still want to force shut down?

YES NO
========================================================
Click on YES
Shut down happens

On a few occasions Plug Free Network has been indicated.

How can these programs be identified?
How can they be made to close at Switch off?

rvcjew · 28 Jan 2016

If your sure that no data is being lost and its just a program getting stuck in memory somewhere you can try lowering the kill times but MAKE SURE you back up your registry first and only change this if you understand what your doing. 3 Ways To Speed Up The Windows 7 Shutdown Process

MarkP15 · 29 Jan 2016

You could run logs to find out what is causing the system to hang. That way, you can disable whatever is causing the problem (usually some useless software that isn't needed or supposed to be running, or maybe malware). If you want to do this, I can show you how/

It's better than doing a reg-edit to change the kill times, but might not lead to the problem if nothing shows up (although I think it will) and will take longer.

Hiker Guy · 11 Feb 2016

ian doughy said:

How can these programs be identified?
How can they be made to close at Switch off?

I have had some issues recently and went into Administrative Tools to the Event Viewer. After your shut down and a restart, look at the Event Viewer for critical errors that occurred in the last hour. This would be the place I would start looking, as it may (or may not) identify something causing your system to hang.

Double click on an issue, and there should be a more informative screen, including a link to a site that may (or may not) have information on that particular event.

In my case, I found that I had a number of critical errors, including the computer seeking some programs that were uninstalled a long time ago, timeouts for the onboard MB graphics, etc. I started cleaning them, and my main issue may have been addressed as well.