shutdown progress may take a long time to done. background programs

Some time when you shutdown your Windows, shutdown progress may take a long time to done.It is because of background programs that run when you run your Windows, and when you shutdown your Pc this programs must be close.So you must control which programs is running and you don't need to those programs.For this run "msconfig" and unmark unnecessary programs.

always wondered hos you change the start up list with out useign a thierd party tool

If still the computer takes long time to shutdown, you can also use some registry trick to finish running programs faster ... Load regedit (Start / Run / regedit /ok), now go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control now find the WaitToKillServiceTimeOut string, dbl click to edit, change from 20000 (default), to 10000 or some lower number, keep in mind this value is in miliseconds, after that is done close regedit and reboot your computer. Now the computer will shutdown a little faster.

That's a good tip. I'll have to look into it.I prune out all the garbage programs that automatically run at startup which should help a bit as well.