Windows Vista Shutdown Problem – Possible Causes
posted by Mike Tucker
Are you having the Windows Vista shutdown problem and not sure what to do about it? Here’s a few things you can try. It is pretty annoying sitting there waiting for your computer to shut down. Some PCs become so corrupt they never shut off. You could hold the power button down for more than four seconds but, this is not the proper way to shut off your computer. Each time you do so you cause more damage to your PC.
There are several things that will cause this. First of all you want to make sure you don’t have a virus on your computer. So update your virus definitions and run a full scan. You will also want to do the same for spyware, update the definitions and your spyware program and preform a full scan. If you do not have a program for removing spyware, you will have to download one, since Windows does not provide a decent one. Windows defender tries, but it does not do a complete job in my opinion.
Spyware and viruses can run in the background on your computer without your knowledge. They don’t like being shut off so they fight the Windows operating system when you go to shut down your PC. So you want to make sure you don’t have any running on your computer.
The biggest reason Windows Vista and other operating systems don’t shutdown properly is because of a corrupt registry. Corrupt or orphaned registry files will cause your system to operate slow. Or possibly crash. By default, Windows will wait the full 30 seconds per program when trying to shut down, if it comes across a registry entry that is invalid. So you need to clean those out of your system periodically. If you know which registry entry is giving you a problem, you can edit it manually by going to Windows, regedit. It’s not recommended that you perform manual changes to your registry. If you delete or change the wrong file your computer may become unusable.
It is much easier and safer to use software that is made for registry repair. You can perform a scan in a just a few minutes and you will find all the orphaned and corrupt files. The software will correct or remove them. It will also allow you to make a full backup of your files before changing anything, just in case. Most of the better programs will create a restore point. These are just safety factors built-in in case you lost power. Or something strange happened while performing a scan.
There are a couple of free programs you can download for cleaning and repair but they usually don’t do a complete job. The paid versions are much better and perform deeper scans. A good registry tool is a wise investment for any computer owner. You should perform regular maintenance on your PC to keep it running smooth and fully optimized.
If you preformed all of the above suggestions. Your PC should now be running like it did when it was new. You can also decrease your system startup and shutdown time by removing programs from startup. Windows Vista loads a lot of programs on start up that aren’t really need.
