PreshutdownTimeout: Windows timeout for shutdown scripts

Hello,

A quick post in the WAPT category.

I just discovered the PreshutdownTimeout registry key in Windows.

Read the sections “Maximum wait time for Group Policy scripts” and “Change History”: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757265(v=ws.10).aspx

By default, Windows kills a script if it runs longer than 15 minutes (when running GPO scripts). This is annoying with c:\wapt\waptexit.exe (install at shutdown) because it is launched through GPO scripts. I’ve already had issues with Microsoft Office or SolidWorks installations. So we need to change the default timeout.

I followed Microsoft recommendations:
First I changed the GPO:

Computer GPO → Windows Settings → System → Scripts →
"Specify maximum wait time for Group Policy scripts"
I set the value to 0, which means infinite timeout.

Then I increased: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\gpsvc\PreshutdownTimeout

The key can’t be modified as a normal administrator — it must be changed as SYSTEM. That’s convenient: WAPT installs as SYSTEM when it’s not run from the command line.

So I created a WAPT package to modify this value:

smp-preshutdowntimeout
http://wapt.lesfourmisduweb.org/wapt/

By default, the package changes the timeout from 15 minutes to 3 hours (other values are available inside setup.py).

Tested with a 40‑minute sleep package: it works!

My investigation on the WAPT mailing list: http://lists.tranquil.it/pipermail/wapt/2015-October/001343.html

Hubert announced that the value would later be handled by WAPT via a parameter in wapt-get.ini.

Simon