A new feature added to QB for 2011 was the ability to keep QBW32.exe running for a faster QB startup.

A way to turn off this feature so it doesn’t happen every time you close QB. If you login to QB and go to Edit > Preferences > General, you will see a checkbox option for “Keep QuickBooks running for quick startups”. If you uncheck the box next to this option, it will close QBW32.exe every time QB is closed