We have received a mail from one of our readers Vikram, having slow and delayed shutdown time on his windows XP computer.

The problem of slow or delayed shutdown is very commonly faced by most of the window XP users. If you are using windows XP for a long time, you are more likely to have such problem.

Why Slow shutdown?

In Windows XP certain registry keys are responsible for determining how long windows will wait before shutting down all the opened programs and services after the shutdown command has been given by the user.

Lets see how we can fix the slow shutdown in windows XP

Fix:

You need to optimise some registry keys values in order to speed up the shutdown process.

1. Open Start >> Run and type regedit and press enter

2. Now navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\’
In this entry, you will see a registry key named WaitToKillAppTimeout .

Double click on it and set its value to 1000 , this value is the time in milliseconds for which the windows waits before all the processes and services are closed.

This way you have set it to 1 second.

Not only this, there are some other registry settings set by default due to which Windows XP will prompt the user for input if there are one or more applications still not closed or not responding. This increases the shutdown time due to no response from the user.

So, you should also change that registry key settings value.

3. Navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop’

Double click on the registry key ‘AutoEndTasks.’ and set its value to 1

4. That is all, Trouble Fixed.

Now restart your system, you will see a considerable reduction in the shutdown time this time.

Tip: If modifying registry seems cumbersome to you can simply create a instant shutdown shortcut on your desktop.

1. Right click on your desktop and select New >> Shortcut

2. copy the following command: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 00

3. Name your shortcut as instant shutdown

4. You can use this created shortcut for fast shutdown.

This will forcibly end all running tasks and shutdown instantly.

Warning: Make sure to save any unsaved work before you shutdown using these tips. It may cause loss of unsaved work.

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Windows XP Shutdown too slow, fix it to shutdown instantly is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Recently we received a problem from one of the readers on system run a chkdsk disk scan again and again at every time on booting windows.

Let’s see how we can solve the problem of disk scan running every time of boot on windows.

Fix:

Disc scan is one of the protective feature of windows which runs to clean any cross-links or bad sectors that may be generated because of the improper shutdown of windows due to some reason. So, when ever you shutdown your system in some improper way ,the next time you boot your windows you will see scan disk running which you can stop by pressing an key on time.

But in some cases as experienced by some of the windows users, disk scan runs every time they reboot, this happens because of the following reasons:

1. Improper shutdown(most common).

2. External hard drive or portable drive attached which causes scan disk to scan them at every reboot.

3. chkdsk was not allowed to be completed at the time of boot.

Above reasons are normally the most common reasons behind this problem, but none of them matches with your case then, you probably have a dirty volume on your hard drive which has some bad sectors which does not get repaired at the time of reboot.

Here is a link to info about understanding of dirty volumes.

So, at every reboot chkdsk tries to repair those dirty bits on those bad sectors on your hard drive in those specific partitions.

But, don’t worry as you can simply fix this problem of disc scanning at every reboot.

Just follow the procedure given below:

You need to do a manual chkdsk on all the partitions or physical hard drives.

1. Open start>>run and type “cmd”(without double quotes)

2. Type “chkntfs /x <drive letter>”(without double quotes) For example: chkntfs /x d:

3. Run this command for all the partitions of your hard drive.

4. Reboot your computer properly it will not do a disk scan again.

We hope this solves your problem…do lets us know through comments if you have any issues.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2010 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

How to avoid chkdsk disk scan at every time booting windows is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

It happens many time when we try to delete a file on the hard disk, and file does not get deleted. It gives the error message saying “Cannot delete, file is being used by some other program” when we are actually not using the same file.

This problem occurs because windows does not release the handle to the file. Let us see the way to delete such files.

Fix:

In order to delete a file, which you are not able to delete normally by delete or shift+delete or right click>>delete you can try following ways out:

Method 1: (With unlocker)

The process of deleting a file could become more easy if you use a freeware called Unlocker.

What is unlocker ?

Unlocker is an explorer extension that allows you with a simple right-click of the mouse on a file or folder to get rid of error message such as error deleting file or folder.

Download Unlocker and install it on your computer.

After installation follow the steps below for deleting files which you are not able to delete otherwise :

1. Right click on the file and select unlocker.

2. If the folder or file is locked by any program of windows , a window listing of lockers will appear.

3. Press unlock all to release the windows program handle to the file.

4. delete the file or folder ,now it will be deleted.

Method 2: In this method there is no need to install any software. This method uses basic DOS commands, if you are not comfortable with working on DOS, see Method1.

1. Open Start>>Run and type “cmd” (without double quotes) and press enter.

2. Press alt+ctrl+del to open task manager, now click on process tab and locate Explorer.exe and end this process.

3. type del <complete file path-name>.

This content is just a summary, read the full article at ©2010 TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles. All Rights Reserved.

Not able to delete a file in Windows XP? delete it with un-locker is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Are you among those who are not able to access or see your folder options under File Menu>>Tools in Windows Explorer on your Windows XP ? This problem of hidden or disabled folder options occur normally due to malicious virus (w32.rontokbro@mm) activity.

The virus creates an entry in registry to disable “Folder Options” in Windows explorer.

Let us see how we can fix it.

Fix:

In most of the cases, even if the virus is been already removed by your anti-virus program, it doesn’t restore the registry back to the original state. Also anti-virus usually does not delete the registry entry created by the virus.

For restoring the registry settings,follow the steps given below

Enable your folder options in explorer.

1. Go to Start > RUN

2. Type regedit and press enter.

3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > Explorer

4. On the right side of the screen, you can see some registry entry names, out of them, right-click on NoFolderOptions and click Modify option.

5.A new small screen pops up, on this screen, sen the value data field as 0 (zero).Press OK.

That’s it but it requires reboot. Trouble Fixed.

If you don’t want to play with the registry yourself ,you can also download the registry file and double click it to add it to the registry.

Technorati Tags: hidden folder options,w32.rontokbro virus problem

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Folder options disabled by Virus / Trojan is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles