XP Home takes a very long time to turn off

[captainrk]

I am experiencing really long shutdown and logoff times whenever I turnoff my computer. It's like it freezes and after over 5 minutes it goes to the Windows is logging off screening then a few more minutes before it says it's saving my settings. I am thinking something is running in the background that is slowing the process but I don't know what if that is actually the problem. Anyone experience anything like this?

[Miz]

Have you done a thorough system cleanup recently? Scanning for and removing all spyware, running Disk Cleanup (Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup), scanning for and removing viruses and finally, running Disk Defragmenter (also in System Tools) might be all that's needed.

[du5]

You could also disable unnecessary items from startup. Plus the disk clean up and defrag that Miz mentioned will help spped up shut down and boot. Here's a link which is normally very helpful for shutdown issues, check it out.
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

[captainrk]

Thx, I'll try those steps and check out the site if I am still having problems.