Reinstalling XP on one of my systems (just for gaming, I'm a Linux user) and rather surprised to see that the glitch in WindowFX not letting Explorer shut down properly hasn't been fixed yet.

So, as a temporary workaround until a new version is released, I whipped up a little program to help things along.

Basically, it's a small service that runs in the background, and monitors for the shutdown/logoff events. When it sees it, it runs a batch file. You can have it run other things too, but for this situation it just forces WindowFX to unload, which in turns lets all the other programs shut down normally.

Sorry, it's hosted on RapidShare. You can get the file at this address: http://rapidshare.com/files/25339267/ShutdownProc.rar.html

Delphi source code is included in case you want to change things or expand on it.

Extract the archive somewhere where you can find it again. Doesn't matter where; I stuck mine in Program Files.

You need to do three things to get this to work.

First, you need to register this program as a service. Open up a command prompt, and navigate to where the program is located. (It'll be in the Bin folder from the archive). Then, enter the command "Shutdownproc /i", without the quotes. That'll install it. ("Shutdownproc /u" un-installs the service)

Then, bring up your services manager. It should already be set, but make sure Shutdownproc is set to automatic. (Note that its not running yet, it wont start until next login, or you can force it to start now.)

Finally, you need a batch file in your Windows directory called "Shutdownproc.bat", minus the quotes again of course. Everything in this batch file will get called. Note you won't see a console window, so don't put anything interactive in it.

For our purposes, the batch file just needs one line in it. "taskkill /F /IM wfxload.exe" Again no quotes. All it's doing is finding the program named wfxload.exe, and forcing it to close.

Once Stardock fixes this glitch you can uninstall it again of course. Hope this helps someone, as aside from this nuisance it's pretty good. (It's no Beryl tho.. hint hint Stardock)

(Edit: Forgot the /F in the batch file)