Windows 8.1 Pro x64 UEFI very slow boot and shutdown

I have a "new" HP Envy and the startup is fine but the shutdown takes about 4 minutes.  Have run also run ccleaner and superantispyware and the shutdown was fine for one time but then went back to the 4 minute shutdown.  Also tried reinstalling a couple of the programs to see if that helped.  Nothing.

Ever found a solution for this? I have a barand new HP Envy 17 running Win 8.1. The machine take 4 to 5 minutes to shut down and I am waiting for HP Support to call me back as promised (2 days of waiting now for them to do this and I do not get my hopes up too high).

I have a "new" HP Envy and the startup is fine but the shutdown takes about 4 minutes.  Have run also run ccleaner and superantispyware and the shutdown was fine for one time but then went back to the 4 minute shutdown.  Also tried reinstalling a couple of the programs to see if that helped.  Nothing.

Ever found a solution for this? I have a barand new HP Envy 17 running Win 8.1. The machine take 4 to 5 minutes to shut down and I am waiting for HP Support to call me back as promised (2 days of waiting now for them to do this and I do not get my hopes up too high).

I assume you upgraded from 8.0 to 8.1.  My problem on a 2 month old Envy was the same as yours.  The fix was to do a complete refresh.  Takes a lot of time because you need to reload all your programs but it did get my shut down to about 15 seconds (down from the 4 plus minutes).

Yes, I did the upgrade to 8.1 but for the first couple of days after the upgrade shutdown was quick. What you're saying is that it is a Win 8.1 problem and not a HP problem? I will do a restore to before the update and see what happens. Thanks.

I found that my start up times for 8.1 Pro - that is, the time elapsed between signing in at the Welcome Screen until having a useable laptop - went from over 200 seconds to under 20 seconds when I disabled the Microsoft service "App Readiness", which is new for 8.1.  To disable, I used msconfig's "Selective Startup" and under the "Services" tab I unchecked "App Readiness".  I don't think I've ever had a Windows system start so quickly!

"App Readiness" - another well thought out MS piece of software!

Hello Everyone,

After reading all the pages in this topic, I felt the need to post the situation I am in.

I believe that a similar situation like mine can be found at page 12.

Unlike most of the people posting here, my current desktop configuration is not that good.

My desktop has a quad core intel processor at 2.3 Ghz with 4 GB RAM, and a hard disk of 500 GB with a gigabyte mother board, 5 year old system configuration.

My desktop used to have the W8.1 preview edition, build N9600, licensed from the university, and all i can say is that it worked GREAT !!! less than 30 secs to boot/shut down with no issues on applications/features. Sometime in late December 2013, i received the notification that " Windows will expire, and my PC will restart every two hours" ( not an exact quote).

I upgraded it in January 19 with W8.1 PRO, official update and then things started to get real bad.

Fisrt thing I noticed was the fact that the new update no longer recognized my license and as such cannot activate it. No real problem since i can log a ticket to the university and receive license for windows 8.1 Pro anyway, it could be some policy for these types of licenses, not completely sure.

Second thing, after installing the " important updates" for windows, around 22 or 23, my desktop started to collapse. The booting time after the updates was 30 minutes, yes HALF AN HOUR !!!!

The shutdown was around 15 minutes.

I re installed the windows, remade the updates, same thing.

Third thing: as i had a busy schedule at work, I made a PC refresh. The Pc runned/booted/shutdown with no problems without the windows updates.

Forth thing: I made the updates again, the important ones, and run the shutdown/booting process 3 times.

Somehow, not even sure how, the time was reduced by a huge amount. Booting lasts around 1 minute, and shutdown around 40-50 seconds.

I will make some testing, later when i get home, but as a conclusion, I can state that the problem is not hardware related, and something is wrong with the updates. Maybe Microsoft will come with a hot-fix, these days, otherwise I am seriously considering a downgrade.

As a general note to this topic, It is frustrating that although this is their forum, MS is not making any official announcement/ reply to our queries. I think this thing is unacceptable for this company.