There is a registry setting that determines how long Windows waits for rogue services, so the other approach is to change the registry setting to a much shorter number........Can't remember the registry key I'm afraid.

Can any one confirm the existance of this key?
Or even better know what it is?

[edit]
found it thanks to google groups, thanks andy for bringing the existance of such a key to light.
anyway found this, might be of use
You can also decrease the time NT waits for a service to stop before
terminating it by performing the following:

Start the registry editor (use regedt32.exe not regedit.exe)
Move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Double click on WaitToKillServiceTimeout (REG_DWORD) and change to the
number of milliseconds after the logoff/shutdown before displaying the Wait,
End Task and Close dialog box, e.g. 10000 for 10 seconds, the default is
20000
Add HangAppTimeout (REG_DWORD) and change to the number of milliseconds to
wait before displaying the Wait, End Task and Close dialog box after trying
to close an application.
Add AutoEndTasks (REG_DWORD) and change to 1 to avoid the dialog asking to
Wait, End Task and Close.

as always wear a radiation when dealing with the windows registry