Quick overview:
A loyal Windows-Tweaks reader (Daniel R.) emailed me this morning to point out another solution for the Windows XP shutdown guide.
If the PC with XP, Vista or Windows 7 simply gets stuck when shutting down, the following solution may help: If you are connected to the network/Internet via cable (LAN), you should switch off the "Wake-up" function of the network adapter.
It enables the PC to wake up via the network. If you don't need this, you should do without it. And this is how it works:
1. right-click on "Computer" (My Computer on XP) and select "Properties".
For XP, click on "Hardware".
2. continue by clicking on "Device Manager". In the next window, open the "Network adapters" category and double-click on the network adapter. You can usually recognize it by its name, such as "NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet" or "Marvell Yukon PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller":
3. search for the "Wake-up function". Switch from "Magic Packet & Pattern Match" (or "Activation by Magic Packet") to "None" (or "Deactivated").
Click on "OK"! From now on, the shutdown should work perfectly again.
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All the tips did not help me. I then created a 2nd user account to avoid any profile issues. Then installed the "User Profile Hive Cleanup" from Microsoft as an additional service. Emptied the prefetch folder, removed NVIDIA graphics driver corpses, as the shutdown problem felt like it was occurring after the screensaver had been running for a long time. Now it seems to be quiet, the shutdown finally works as desired. PC: HP Pavilion a4603w