Change Shutdown Timers In XP

Make XP shut down more quickly

Are you annoyed at the amount of time it takes Windows XP to shut down? If so, it may be that it's waiting on a hung program. You can edit the registry to change the amount of time that XP waits for a program to close. When editing the registry, you should back it up first. Follow these steps to change timers:
Open your registry editor, by clicking "Start" and then choose "Run", type regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop
In the right pane, find HungAppTimeout and double click it
In the value data box, change the default value (5000) to a lower number (example, 1000). Click OK.
Next, find the WaitToKillAppTimeout and double click it
Change the default value from 20000 to 1000. Click OK.
Navigate to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control
In the right pane, find WaitToKillServiceTimeout and double click it.
Change the default value to 1000 and click OK.
Navigate to:HKEY_USERS \ DEFAULT \ Control Panel \ Desktop
Find HungAppTimeout and doubleclick it.
Change the default value to 2000 and click OK.
In the same key, find WaitToKillAppTimeout and double click it.
Change the value to 1000 and click OK.
If you do not want the timeout to be short, change these values to something higher (example, 5000). Just make sure the value is the same for each.

Start System Restore in XP

If you're having problems that prevent you from booting, you can still use the System Restore tool to a previous state, and fix the problem.
Follow on:
- Restart the computer and press and hold F8 during startup to bring up the options menu
Select "Safe mode with a command prompt".

- If you have multiple operating systems installed, select the correct instance of XP
Log on with an administrative account.

- At the command prompt, type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe and press ENTER