#91 - Why does ending take so long?

As I was waiting and waiting and waiting for my laptop to shut down yesterday, I thought I might delve into why PCs take so long to shut down. When you get that shiny new PC with no programs on it you can get into Windows in under 30 seconds and shutting down takes that much time or less.

Now I understand why starting up takes longer after you load a bunch of programs. They all want to load at start up and take up valuable resources. What I don't understand is why it takes SO LONG to shut down your PC. My Apple mini Mac after 2 years of ownership, constant upgrades, loading/unloading programs, and surfing everywhere on the Internet shuts down in 16 seconds, EVERY SINGLE TIME!. So what is going on with our PCs?

Turns out that Microsoft gave our very loose specifications on memory usage under Windows (and for what its worth Vista is no faster in shutting down). Many programs don't close out properly and don't clean up the mess they make when they run. Windows tries to shut down, but wants to clean up the mess (es). That doesn't happen and Windows literally hangs until it times out and finally shuts down.

Here is a link to some instructions on speeding up your shut downs. I've found it works and it cuts the shut down time by 30%. Memory Clean Up

I mean why be nice? If you have taken the trouble to click on Start, Turn off Computer AND Turn Off (that's three clicks for goodness sake) why not instantly turn off windows? Sigh another mystery that Microsoft will never tell us about.