Automatically Shutdown Not Responding Applications

By | 2007-05-03

Often when Windows NT shutdown, a task will return as ‘Not Responding’ and you are given the choice to ‘End Task’ enabling this function automatically ends the task.

  1. Open the registry and find the key below.
  2. Modify the value of ‘AutoEndTasks’ to equal ‘1’ for enabled.
  3. The default time-out before ending the task is defined by the value of ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’ located in the same key, this value is in milliseconds (default=20000 i.e. 20 seconds). You can therefore additonally change this value to speed the process up.

Note: This change will affect all users but value can also be changed on a user basis by modifying [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] and the same registry key.

Key: [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
Value Name: AutoEndTasks
Data Type: REG_SZ
Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)

Author: dwirch

Derek Wirch is a seasoned IT professional with an impressive career dating back to 1986. He brings a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience that is invaluable to those embarking on their journey in the tech industry.

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