[Ted]

FIrst of all, the process(es) you're unable to stop very well may have something to do with the shut-down delays. At shut-down, the system systematically stop all of those processes and when it gets to one that is stubborn, it throws up that "Trying to end program" message and waits for your decision. If you decide to let it wait a while longer, the system will too. Some processes take longer to stop for one reason or another. If, after a certain amount of time they don't stop, the system stops them anyway. This is where some people have experienced data loss or maybe settings that seem to revert back to what they were before a they were changed - the program (or process) didn't have enough time to save things before the system stopped it.

The names of those processes that you can't manually stop via ctrl-alt-del are important to trying to solve this.

You might try uninstalling Norton and reinstalling it again. I've never used the firewall, but if it works the same as their anti-virus, you'll get a bonus - you'll see that your subscriptions are set back to one year (or whatever they are when you first installed it). Norton could be the cause of the programs to hang on shut-down or it may even be Norton itself that is hanging. That is why it's important for me to know what processes and programs are hanging. If you're hitting ctrl-alt-del and stopping a process belonging to Norton, you may very well be causing the freezes you're experiencing. A reboot is the best solution when you have problems with a firewall or AV software. If that doesn't fix the problem, a reinstallation of the firewall/AV is the next thing to try.

My advice would be to uninstall ALL Norton/Symantec products and reinstall them again, following the instructions given. I don't remember what order, but their LiveUpdate and another program (LiveReg maybe?) have to be uninstalled either before or after the main program. It should be in a help file or if I remember correctly, it'll tell you if you try to uninstall the wrong part first.

Norton/Symantec products are all tied closely together when they're installed and "take over" a lot of system components (for lack of the proper word). Sometimes simply uninstalling via Add/Remove is not enough, but usually it is. If it isn't, you'll need someone who knows about the registry that can clean out all the remnants of Norton/Symantec products to get things back to where they were before.

People will suggest using System Restore to restore to a point before Norton was installed, but depending on how long ago that was, that can lead to other problems. I don't recommmend system restore to anyone, but the very casual user who doesn't make many changes at all to their system. You can try System Restore if uninstalling/reinstalling Norton doesn't fix your problem, but make sure to save a restore point just prior to doing it so you can return to where you were if you have problems with the old restore point.

I can't and won't help online with something as complicated as cleaning the registry of Norton's remnants. It's too risky.

Let us know how it goes.