Ah, okay. Well, it is important to remember that Windows does a lot a strange things during shut downs and boots. If you run a disk cleaner, for example, many files cannot be deleted while Windows is running, so they are deleted during the "next" boot process. My XP Pro system regularly takes about 4 1/2 minutes from pressing the power button until my firewall icon pops into my System Tray. Fortunately, I usually leave my systems on 24/7 so I don't have to wait very often.