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When Windows starts a shutdown, it sends a signal to all processes that they should shut down ASAP. This is to allow those processes to shutdown gracefully instead of leaving files open etc. After a while (a few seconds), Windows will display this message for any process that's still running. This might be for two reasons : either the process hasn't finished closing its files, clearing its buffers etc (can happen when you have insufficient memory so its swapping a lot), so it just needs a bit more time, OR the process has simply locked up or entered an infinite loop and will never stop out of its own accord. That's why you see a timer, and why you get the option to shut it down instantly. If you chose this last option, the process may leave some debris behind, and in some worse case may even corrupt some files. That's why its always better to give it some time, rather than interrupt it before it's done. Ofcourse if the timer has stopped and it's still running, you might have to force it to shutdown anyway.
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