When shutting down, by default, Windows XP gives open programs 20 seconds (20000 milliseconds) to clean up and close before it automatically closes them. If this is too long (or not long enough), you can be short (or lengthen) this time by following this guide.

Before beginning this guide, please do this

Click ,

then .

Type regedit then click

Then navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

On the right hand side locate the key named waittokillapptimeout and then double click on it.

Then change the value to either a lower value if you want to shorten the amount of time or to a larger value if you want to lengthen the amount of time. This value is expressed in milliseconds, so be sure to put the new value in milliseconds. Here is a quick table with a few conversions from seconds to milliseconds.

Click Ok Then Reboot

This guide was written by Jason LeDuc. Copyright © 2005-2006. All rights reserved.