it just stays at the screen showing "windows is shutting down".

parOx,
Here is a microsoft article about this which may give you some help

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=196008


EDIT ignore that link parOx, I don't think that's your version of windows!!
Some people here have a chat about your problem

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimat...56;t=002626;p=1

Also, if this is Windows XP, here's the pertinent MS Knowledge Base article:

Resources to help troubleshoot shutdown problems in Windows XP

And/or pay a visit to the Windows Shutdown Troubleshooter: Windows XP Shutdown & Restart Troubleshooting

Jim Eshelman has written the book on Windows shutdown problems.

Good luck!

Two good links there Tony.

Thanks, Hazelnut. Shutdown problems being among the most frequent issues reported at Windows Help forums and newsgroups I actually had this one in my canned replies...

it just halts and dosent go on from there, tried it all.

Does it also hang if you shut down from Safe Mode?

Wonder if the app at the link could help.

User Profile Hive Cleanup

Yep. That is often helpful. It has worked for me in the past.

Ah, thanks for the tip!

Not sure whether it will help in this case, but it may help me LOL!. I've seen occasional occurences of profile unload problems (evt ID 1517) in my Event log, but as otherwise everything runs fine I never bothered to investigate further.

This may however be just what's required.

Thanks again!

none work :/

At this point it may be a good idea to give us a closer look at your configuration. To this end, post a HijackThis log in the appropriate section of this board.

You'll find a sticky at the top of the page explaining how to go about it.