Faster Windows Shutdown
If you shut down Windows XP, there can be some services stuck in the memory which Windows is not able to end the normal way. Therefore it has to "kill" those services. This can take some time because in default Windows for 20 seconds tries to normally end the services. To speed up the shutdown process, you can change this time.
Start the registry editor by clicking "Start" -> "Run..." and type "regedit". Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control" and double-click on "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" located in the right window.
The value of this key is in milliseconds, the default is 20000. Change this value to 2000.
You can enter even lower values, however, some computers have problems running with a value of under 2000.
To shut down Windows even faster go to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop" and make sure the value of the key "HungAppTimeout" is set to 5000. In the same folder double-click on "WaitToKillAppTimeout" and change its value to 2000 (the default is 20000).
This tweaks will speed-up the Shutdown of Windows XP.