Shut Down -Speed Up

How to Set WaitToKillServiceTimeout to Speed Up Shut Down Time in Windows​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to set the WaitToKillServiceTimeout to how long the system waits for services to stop after notifying the service that the system is shutting down in XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

When the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value of this entry expires, the system notifies the user that the service has not stopped. The user can either force the service task to stop or continue to wait. If the user waits, this WaitToKillServiceTimeout value specifies the interval between repeated user notices that the service has not stopped.

If all services stop before this WaitToKillServiceTimeout value expires, the system shuts down; it does not wait for this value to expire.

   Warning

You should always save and close all programs before shutting down the computer to help prevent any data loss.

   Tip

If your shutdown time is still taking longer then normal, then check these items below.

• Make sure your system is not set to clear the page file at shutdown.
• Perform a clean start to see if it shuts down normally with minimal applications running. If so, it will help you to find what may be causing the hang at shutdown.
• WaitToKillServiceTimeout registry value does not work in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

OPTION ONE

Set WaitToKillServiceTimeout before Shut Down using a REG File Download

1. Do step 2, 3, or 4 below for what you would like to do.

2. To Speed Up Shut Down Time with 2 Second WaitToKillServiceTimeout
A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.
NOTE: This sets the shutdown "Wait to kill" time to 2 seconds (2000 milliseconds). If you want shutdown to wait for a different amount of seconds, then do the manual method below.
2_Second_Shutdown.reg

Download


3. To Restore the Default WaitToKillServiceTimeout in Windows 7
A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.
NOTE: The default shutdown "wait to kill" time is 12 seconds (12000 milliseconds) in Windows 7.
Windows-7_Default_Shutdown_Time.reg

Download


4. To Restore the Default WaitToKillServiceTimeout in Windows 8
A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.
NOTE: The default shutdown "wait to kill" time is 5 seconds (5000 milliseconds) in Windows 7.
Windows-8_Default_Shutdown_Time.reg

Download


5. Save, and save the .reg file to your desktop.

6. Double click on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

7. If prompted, click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8. If you like, you may also wish to change the HungAppTimeout, WaitToKillAppTimeout, and AutoEndTasks values to what you want.

9. When finished, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

OPTION TWO

Set WaitToKillServiceTimeout before Shut Down in Registry Editor

1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and click/tap on OK.

2. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

3. In the right pane, right click on WaitToKillServiceTimeout, and click on Modify. (See screenshot above)

4. Type in a number between 2000-20000 (2-20 seconds), and click on OK. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: The default time is 12000 (Windows 7) or 5000 (Windows 8). I use 2000 (2 seconds) and have not had any problems. Your experience may vary.

5. If you like, you may also wish to change the HungAppTimeout, WaitToKillAppTimeout, and AutoEndTasks values to what you want.

6. When finished, you can close Registry Editor if you like.
NOTE: If you have problems with programs from your computer shutting down to quickly, then repeat the above steps and increase the WaitToKillServiceTimeout time (step 5) a bit.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Specify HungAppTimeout Used to Determine a Hung Process in Windows
• How to Specify WaitToKillAppTimeout to Speed Up Shut Down Time in Windows
• Turn On or Off to Automatically Close Apps not Responding at Shutdown in Windows
• How to See What Your Windows 7 Restart Time is
• How to Create a Shut Down Windows Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Create a Shut Down Computer Shortcut in Windows
• How to Enable or Disable Shut Down without Having to Log On
• How to Change the "Logging off..." Text Message at Shut Down in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Change the "Shutting down..." Text Message at Shut Down in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Allow or Prevent Users and Groups to Shut Down the Computer
• How to See the Last Shutdown Time of Your Windows PC
• How to Enable or Disable "Clear Virtual Memory Paging File at Shutdown" in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Reduce the Startup Delay Time for Desktop Apps in Windows 8 and 8.1

 

[Brink]

Hello Demonicon,

You most likely have some app that is running in background not wanting to shut down properly. This tutorial will not affect that. You could check in Task Manager (CTRL+Shift+ESC) to see what "Applications" or "Proccess" for a app are listed before shutting down to help narrow down which one may be the cause.

What do you have the wait time set as?

If you like, you could give the tutorial below to use a force shut down shortcut to see if that may help shut down your computer faster until you find the app causing the delay.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[x BlueRobot]

Thanks, I've been looking for ways to maximise my performance on my laptop without purchasing new hardware or software.

 

[firetrix]

Hi
I had some problems with shutting down. It takes to long-more than 2min to shutdown. I tried the methods you described above. It really worked but not so great. Then two weeks ago I installed windows 8 consumer preview. Its really takes 10-15 sec to start and shutdown. Is it possible in 7 too.

 

[Brink]

Hello Firetrix,

It sounds like you may have something that is hanging at shut down. Do you have everything closed before shutting down?

 

[firetrix]

Hi brink
yes I had some background processes slow down me. But now I got fixed. What I am trying to ask here is now I have win 8 with shut down time less than 10sec. Is it possible to get that kind of speed in win 7.

And thank you for your post.

 

[Brink]

Well, that really depends on how fast your system hardware is, and if you have anything else running that may slow it down. What's your current shut down time? Hopefully not the 2 mins.

You might give the instant shut down shortcut in the tutorial below a try to see if that may help any.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61294-shut-down-computer-shortcut-create.html

 

[firetrix]

now I am using windows 8 consumer preview. And the shut down time is 10 sec.

 

[x BlueRobot]

Windows 8 is not fully complete, therefore will have less files than the Windows 7 operating system, maybe that's why Windows 8 seems to shutdown faster.

 

[andreasandrews]

Excellent, I'm working my way down the optimise (sorry about the UK spelling there) list found here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

and this is a great addition, although I did wonder for a second if I might find a problem, but for now I'm going for maximum efficiency. My philosophy is that if you shut-down too quickly or by mistake, then you learn from it!

Now I'm wondering how you are measuring the re-boot times? Ok... update* I actually went and found a .vbs script from here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/720-restart-time.html


Going to carry on with the list soon though, but first let's re-boot and then see if my time improves further down the line.

 

[fireberd]

Change Shutdown Time

I have the "wait to kill" set to 5000, per instructions I found, but I still have about a 20 second shutdown time. Is there something else that needs to be set?

Fixed after running the registry utility to set it to two seconds. It shuts down (restart) in 4 seconds. That is acceptable.

 

[marsmimar]

I have the "wait to kill" set to 5000, per instructions I found, but I still have about a 20 second shutdown time. Is there something else that needs to be set?

According to this tutorial make sure your system is NOT set to clear the pagefile at shutdown. If you open regedit and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

Change the value of ClearPageFile at Shutdown to a 0 IF the value is 1 (Option Three, Step 6.)

Virtual Memory Paging File - Clear at Shutdown - Vista Forums

If value is already at 0 try doing the Clean Startup to see if anything is interfering with shutdown.

 

[Brink]

I have the "wait to kill" set to 5000, per instructions I found, but I still have about a 20 second shutdown time. Is there something else that needs to be set?

Hello Jack,

In addition, if you have hibernate enabled, then it could take about that long at shut down to save system memory to the hiberfil.sys file.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[fireberd]

I don't have Hibernate enabled (I don't use that).

I just tried it and it now shuts down (restart) in about 4 seconds after applying the utility you listed to change it to 2 seconds (and a restart). I'll take that.

Tnx/Jack

 

[nilank]

Well, if changing this registry key doesn't work for anyone out there, you need to apply this hotfix for it to work: WaitToKillServiceTimeout registry value does not work in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2

I have an old system with just 1.25 gigs of RAM. Actually what happens is when I use the system for a lot of time, all the Windows things like services' dlls and exes are paged onto the pagefile and the RAM is emptied for the applications in use. Once these applications are closed, darn Windows does not swap back these services back to the RAM unless and until needed. When the system is then shutdown, these services need to be shutdown as well, but in order to do so, they first need to be swapped back to the RAM from pagefile. This causes shutdown delays.

I first lowered down the value to 2000, but that didn't seem to work because every service was closed before those 2 seconds. The overall shutdown time was around 10-20 seconds which I hated coz I really need super fast shutdowns for some reason. I then lowered down it to 600. Now the shutdown takes around 7 sec which is pretty fine for me. I think there's no need of making these Windows services shutdown down properly coz they don't really have anything to save to the HDD which might result in data loss. Only the handles need to be closed while shutting down, which I suppose, is useless. I never had problems making these pesky services crash. They only make Windows run and provide special functions, so no need to shut them down with too much care, LOL.

 

[Brink]

Thank you for the addition Nilank.

 

[nilank]

You're welcome Shawn.

 

[nilank]

As described in my last post, on low memory systems, swapping things back from the pagefile to the RAM in order to close handles to services during shutdown contributes to shut down time.

A solution can be disabling pagefile, but I DON NOT recommend doing so. Instead, setting the min pagefile size to the lowest number (16 MB) and setting the max to a number desired can "force" Windows to use as much as RAM as possible, thus making things stay in the RAM. Windows can automatically increase the pagefile size when required.

Virtual Memory Paging File - Change

Just tested this method. Works pretty well.

Warning: This can lead to fragmentation because the pagefile is resized again and again. To solve this problem, I have made a separate small partition and dedicated it completely to the pagefile. This solves the problem of fragmentation in my case.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Shawn I might have been doing this wrong - I have been doing the first two control sets so is just that last ref?? for Wait to kill??

Mine as I had told Two cables about

 

[Brink]

Hello John,

You only need to do the tutorial in the registry location below, and not what's in your screenshot. The ControlSet### keys are just backup versions of your CurrentControlSet key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thanks Shawn I'll reset the machines