HJT

[xonk]

Somewhat confused. I am using Zone Alarm Security Suite which is an anti-virus/anti-spyware. Does it not cover both aspects of your question.

There is only one icon in the system tray which is the one I click to locate shutdown function and it alleviates this pain in the a--- of having to wait 20 mins before restart or close down completely.

Hope you see where I am coming from !!!

[ShadowPuterDude]

Sounds to me that Zone Alarm is corrupt. Exit only the ZA processes and try shutting down your computer.

If it shuts down properly then you need to fully uninstall the ZA Security Suite, reboot and install.

[TurcoLoco]

Sounds to me that Zone Alarm is corrupt. Exit only the ZA processes and try shutting down your computer.

If it shuts down properly then you need to fully uninstall the ZA Security Suite, reboot and install.

Furthermore, if you have the ZA full suite which already comes with a Virus Scanner then what do you need AVG for? In that case, I would shutdown ZoneAlarm (not uninstall), then uninstall AVG, reboot afterwards and then check again if rebooting/shutting down is still a problem or not.
If it is then do what SPD suggested...

Godd Luck.