How can I increase the time that services have to shut down?

John Savill

April 18, 2001

1 Min Read
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A. By default, the OS allows services 20 seconds to stop before it forcefully halts them. For services that have a large amount of information in memory (e.g., Internet Security and Acceleration—ISA—Server 2000), 20 seconds might not be enough time. To increase the time the system allows, perform the following steps:

  1. Start regedit.exe.

  2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl.

  3. Double-click WaitToKillServiceTimeout.

  4. Set this value to the desired wait time in milliseconds—60000 is 1 minute.

  5. Click OK.

  6. Close regedit.

  7. Reboot the machine.

Note that this value applies to ALL services, so setting it to a longer interval might slow your computer's shut down: if a service doesn't shut down correctly, it will have a longer time before the OS halts it.

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