Thank You for all the suggestions. Actually, I used to have Norton Anti-Virus 2002 and now I have the 2004 Professional version. At one point, I had to un-install the Anti-Virus but the shutdown still took forever. So I guess that's not it. For the second reply: Hi Keith. You're right. I don't get any blue screen when shutting down. Actually, I do have Easy CD Creator installed on my computer. The problem is I've had it directly installed before I bought the computer so It's hard for me to say if this is causing the slowdown. I also had it installed as a "favor" so I don't have the original installation disk. In other words, if I un-install it, I won't get it back unless I buy it. If that's what’s causing the slowdown I guess I'm just going to have to live with it for a while until I buy the software myself. I would appreciate if you could find out, or actually remember how you got the blue screen to come up. =) Response Number 1 Name: Patrick Date: December 13, 2003 at 16:05:59 Pacific Subject: Win2k takes too long to shut down Reply: Hi, The cause doesn't have to be in windows. Maybe you have Norton (symatec) Antivirus? there has been a bug in norton (I believe version 2003) that causes windows to hang for a few minutes on "saving personal settings". An update patch can be found on their site... There are a lot of other reasons that may cause slow shutdown, but it requires more detailed info to give a solution Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal Response Number 2 Name: keithbraithwaite Date: December 16, 2003 at 09:12:07 Pacific Subject: Win2k takes too long to shut down Reply: I think I might be able to help - I had the same problem. Do you get a blue error message screen on shutdown? I presume you don't since you don't mention it. Neither did I till I made a change which I'll try to look up for you. However, that wasn't the real answer, it just gave the clue to what was happening. in fact it was due to a system error which stopped the power-down. The problem was that I had tried to install a program which caused this error and I found out more or less by accident that Easy CD Creator does this to W2K. If by coincidence you've tried to install this program, uninstall it and the problem will go away. If you haven't tried to install E CD Creator, there is probably another program you installed which needs a more up to date driver or doesn't work with W2K. If you can identify the moment when the problem started and you think it was just after installing a program - uninstall that program and see what happens. hopefully you'll have th installation CD or the downloaded installation file to reinstall with. if I can remember how I got the blue shutdown error screen to come up I'll get back to you, but someone reading this may be able to tell you right away. I lived with the probelm for a couple of months and got rid of it like this. All the best Keith