Disable Post-Crash Restarts in XP/Vista

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Sometimes Windows reboots when you only want it to turn off. This may be caused by the OS thinking a shutdown is actually a crash, which it is programmed to respond to by restarting.

To disable this feature in Windows XP

Right-click on My Computer, choose Properties—>Advanced and click Settings

under Startup and Recovery. Uncheck Automatically restart under System failure, and click OK.

To disable this feature in Windows Vista

Right-click on Computer, choose Properties—>Advanced system settings

Advanced , and click Settings

under Startup and Recovery. Uncheck Automatically restart under System failure, and click OK.

This doesn’t address the cause of the “crashes”, however. A primary reason for such failures is a hardware or software conflict, so if you’ve recently installed some device or program, check the vendor’s Web site for updated firmware or a new driver.

If your shutdowns are just slow, Windows may be clearing your virtual memory and system-hibernation cache (sleep mode in Vista) when it closes, which adds considerably to the shutdown process. To reset this option, click Start>Run (in Vista, simply press the Windows key), type gpedit.msc, and press Enter to open the Group Policy Editor. Navigate in the left pane to Computer Configuration>Windows Settings>Security Settings>Local Policies>Security Options, double-click Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile, choose Disabled (if it isn’t selected already), and click OK.