Slow Reboot and Shutdown solved!!

This may not apply to anyone else but hopefully may offer an alternative
solve
for those of you who have been bothered with unbearable slow reboots and
shutdowns..

I've been plagued with this problem for the last eighteen months or so and
have
tried everything I could to solve the problem.. Recommendations to update
all
the drivers, make certain corrections in the Registry, and many other
suggestions
were unsuccessful.. I had really given up long ago trying to solve the
issue..

I have WinXP Pro as my OS and I've always used eTrust EZ Antivirus along
with
ZoneAlarm Pro for protection.. For some unknown reason a couple of months
ago
I also installed AVG version 7 to work in conjunction with eTrust which it
did..

A couple of days ago I had problems getting the automatic update on AVG to
work
and I couldn't access their server for the update.. After several tries I
decided to just
get rid of it and went to ADD/REMOVE..

During the uninstall a window popped up asking if I wanted to reset Windows
at
it's original default settings.. I cliked Yes and finished the uninstall..
At the end it
said I had to reboot to finalize the uninstall..

It took about 5 seconds for the two closing windows (saving settings, etc)
to come
up and it shut down immediately.. Since then I am able to reboot or shut
down in
the same manner..

Don't know what AVG did when it reset windows at it's default settings but
it
took care of the shutdown problem..

AVG had nothing to do with the problem since I haven't had it installed for
any
length of time and the problem existed way before I installed it.. When I
would
shut down, a window would pop up (went too fast to read it) and the icons on
the desktop would leave as well as the start tray and then it would 'hang'
for
at least 3 to 5 minutes before it would bring up the two closing windows..
Then
it would take another minute or so to complete the shutdown.. Same thing
with
the reboot...

Whether it would work for you to install AVG and then remove it to see if it
would work for you is something you'll have to decide.. I'm happy it worked
for
me..