How to speed up Microsoft Exchange 2007/2010 shutdown

Sometimes there is no other choice than restart the Exchange Server. But it takes even 15 minutes to shut the server down and another 10 to start it up. If you want to speed it up, do the following:

1. Go to Start/Programs/Administrative Tools/Services

2. Find Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service, right-click it and choose Stop

3. You will be prompted whether you want to stop the additional services. (Fig. 1.)

Fig. 1. Stopping additional services

4. Click Yes

5. Shut down Exchange server. It will perform much faster.