[SOLVED] Send the shut down signal or use the OS's method?

[Advice Pro]

Is it equivalent to Send the shut down signal than use the OS's method method? The former is faster on Linux Mint 11. I'm concerned about safety only!

[vbox4me2]

As long as the OS shutsdown its ok, never seen issues with it yet.

[dlharper]

There is certainly some difference between them. I am using Win 2000 on a Win 7-64 host. Using the Windows Start button and Shut down always seems to work without problem. Using "Send the shutdown signal" often hangs completely, or for several minutes. Slightly irritating, because I sometimes forget and may have to force a closure with corresponding messy boot-up next time.

[vbox4me2]

Sure there is a difference which way the shutdown proceeds between the 2 methods, you can't emulate a hardware signal. But in such cases you need to look what is not stopping like services or monitor drivers, the OS can also be waiting for something its not getting. If you can't find it then use a shutdown script inside the Guest which stops/terminates anything that might be taking a long time.