Slow shutdown of Windows 7? Fix it quickly

 

I encountered a problem of my PC with Windows 7 shutting down too slow (about 110 seconds). Being otherwise really happy with Windows 7 and it's stability, I investigated what causes this slow shutdown.
Turns out the solution was pretty easy. Some Windows 7 tuning utility allowed me to set some "security setting" which deleted the pagefile.sys each time I was shutting down the computer. Luckily, I stumbled upon this site with solution.

1. Run gpedit.msc
2. Find the thread Computer configuration/Windows settings/Security settings/Local ploicies/Security options/
3. Find the Shutdown:Clear virtual memory pagefile setting
4. Set it to Disabled
5. Reboot

And that's it. My computer now shuts down in about 20 seconds. Of course, you don't need to shut down your computer every day, just put it to sleep or (when traveling) hibernate, but sometimes it is necessary and it is handy when shutting down the computer with Windows doesn't take too long.