Windows takes long time to shutdown

Windows Server 2008 Takes Too Long to Restart or Shutdown.

Had two identical Lenovo ThinkServer servers loaded with Windows Server 2008 SP1 (not R2) and when restarting or shutting down, it would take over 30 minutes for them to restart.

When you press restart in Windows, Keyboard and Mouse appear unresponsive and the screen halts.

It turned out that Windows 2008 Server was configured to clear the page file upon shut down/restart and that was delaying the process of server going down. To fix the issue, go to the following registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

and change ClearPageFileAtShutdown value to 0 instead of 1

Alternatively, you can go to Programs, Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy, Security Settings, Local Policies, Security Options, In the right pane, right click on Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile. Change it to disabled.

After you make the change, reboot the server (it might still take a long time to reboot because the setting will take effect next time you boot).

If you have a Domain Policy configured make sure you change that setting in the Domain Group Policy on the Domain Controller.

If you find this article helpful, please send me a note to Mike@bostonIT.com so I can keep on adding more hands-on knowledgebase articles.

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