Is there such a thing?

I am looking for a program that can show what is not shutting down when turning off Windows, similar to a start up program but in reverse, don’t know if there is such a thing.

What has brought me to this is I have upgraded Prevx and MJ Registry Watcher, installed Process Guard 2 weeks ago and for the last 3 days Windows refuses to close, have to hard power off.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

 

Scan the boot (C?) partition for NEW or CHANGED items over the last 3 days. Should give you an idea of those suspect proggies. You can turn them OFF or remove them to test for problem.

 

Thanks Nod32_9 I'm a Windows guy, click and go, can you please advise me a little further as to how I can try your suggestion.

Cheers; D

 

Hi Blackspear,

If you have XP Pro, go Start/Run and execute gpedit.msc. Go to Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System, double-click "Verbose vs normal status messages" and enable it. Once enabled, you will see messages on the shutdown screen showing each step of the shutdown routine. If one of the steps hangs, then the status message for that step will also hang. If you have XP Home, then follow these instructions: Show Verbose Security Status Messages.

You should also take a look at your Event Viewer for application warnings. If the registry cannot be unloaded you will see a "Userenv" warning:

"Windows saved user *\* registry while an application or service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used by the user's registry has not been freed. The registry will be unloaded when it is no longer in use. This is often caused by services running as a user account, try configuring the services to run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account"

If you find a pattern of warnings like this, then troubleshoot by closing some running processes manually and see if Windows shuts down successfully.

Nick

 

Go to Start\Search\For Files or Folders. Look in Local Hard Drives (select C if you're working with one large C partition). Put a check mark by "Date". Select either "files Modified" (more matches) or "files Created" (less matches). Select the search period using "between xx and xx". Put a check mark by "Advanced Options" and windows will list those items in the right pane.

If you boot/reboot windows on a daily basis, then the problem is usually related to a recent mod in hardware/software. Always create a restore point, or better yet, image the OS prior to any change in hardward/software.

Clearing out the MSCONFIG's STARTUP tab is another quick way to check for shutdown problem. I only enable the FW and AV in the startup list. This makes for a very fast boot/shutdown with a high degree of system reliability.

 

Many thanks Nick, trying it now.

Cheers

 

Hi Nick, I located and did as you posted, it doesn't display anything, no popup window, nothing happens at all. I gather it would log this information somewhere though?

I do get a event log message but no further details, as per screen shot.

Cheers

 

Hi Blackspear,

The verbose status messages should be visible onscreen (1) at startup after you login but before your desktop loads or (2) at shutdown after your desktop unloads but before you see the final "Windows is shutting down..." message. These messages are not logged anywhere that I know of.

Event ID 1073 is just a generic error message that Windows has failed to shutdown. Looks like you will have to shut down individual apps or services manually to determine which one is at fault. Does your desktop unload? If it does, then the problem is likely service-related.

Nick

 

I’ll go back and recheck that I’ve done everything correctly, but at this points I don’t get a Window upon start or shutdown.

Shall do.

No the Desktop remains.

Many thanks for your help with this one, will be interesting to see the messages load.

Cheers

 

Hi Blackspear,

Just remembered a program that should help log what is not shutting down: Process Logger and Process Log Analyzer. It runs as a very lightweight service (independent of the desktop shell) and tracks process startup, runtime stats, and process shutdown. I attached part of the log output I get when I shutdown Windows. I imagine if a process is not shutting down as it should, then it will be missing from the log. The Log Analyzer is useful for viewing the raw log located in the system32 folder. Hope it helps.

Nick

 

Many thanks Nick, I shall try that now.

Cheers

 

OK, have it installed, the instructions say:

In order to run the service you can use Services Control Manager.
Select "PLClient" service in the list, right-click it, and then
click "Start". Or you can run the service using "net" utility: net start PLClient

I'm a bit lost here as I can't see it, attached a screen shot:

Cheers

 

Should look like this after using the installer. Any security apps blocking service installation?

Nick

 

Shut down Process Guard 3, and reinstalled, now it's working, many thanks for your help. I belive I'm there now

Cheers

 

I think a simple way would of been to simply after issuing the shutdown command open up task manager and start to manully kill processes. Once you get to the process thats holding it up, it will just shut down the system. I had this issue with a system I was working on in the back. Then to test, after reboot, I went into MSCONFIG, turned that process off, and whola, it shut down fine. Then I finally deleted that process out of the registry, so it would never come back.

Good Luck.