Make Windows XP Shutdown Faster than ever

You can make your shut down process a bit faster by the following tweak.

1. This step is very important.
Export (right click > Export) the following keys and save it to a safer place.

HKEY CURRENT USER\Control Panel\Desktop
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

2. Open Notepad, copy and paste the following to the Notepad.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"
"HungAppTimeout"="1000"
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="2000"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="2000"

3. Save the file and close Notepad.

4. Change extension of the file from .txt (text file) to .reg (registry file).

5. Double click open this file and click Yes and the OK .