I had a problem with Vista starting after installing the Netflix desktop view app. I also had a problematic HP Printer driver/software install. I'm quite certain one of these caused the issue... that is when I select Shut Down, everything happens as normal but then my computer just doesn't shut down/power down/turn off. My question is, is it ok to delete the Hewlett-Packard & Netflix folders from the registry to see if this is causing the problem? Not sure I understand why this would cause an issue?? I've uninstalled all HP software. Netflix doesn't have an uninstall feature for theirs. I'd rather not do a system restore immediately considering I've installed a million apps after the Netflix date. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I'd start at event viewer. It might show a process hanging that prevents the system from shutting down. If you have had a number of issues then you might consider a reload of the system to the OEM state !!!ONLY if you are sure you know what your are doing !!! Make a NTBACKUP first to return to your current state. We don't know which app is really doing the problem. A million apps might be the issue not the HP. HP is well tested but not foolproof. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10

You should be able sniff out the culprit using msconfig. There's gotta be something running in the background that is preventing the shutdown routine to proceed. Disable 100% of your startup items & try a normal reboot. If the system is able to reboot when prompted, try a process of elimination by reenabling 50% of them & see if the machine is still able to restart when prompted. If it does restart, then you know it's part of the 50% items currently disabled. So, cut that to 25% & repeat the process. If it doesn't restart, then the culprit is among the 50% part of items enabled. What you then do is disable 25% of those & see what happens when you issue the restart command. Good luck! Jabbering Idiots: Everywhere You Look!