WHEN TO SHUT DOWN AND RESTART?
Have you ever spoken to IT SUPPORT and they asked you to restart your computer? Did it not work? Did you struggle for hours going through your registry and a bunch of programs to fix a simple problem?
Many times now I experienced a program crash or my updates just aren't working with me...instead they do everything in their power to stop me from doing my work!
You can imagine my further frustration when I found out that most of the times it can be fixed with a simple restart! Not shutting it down, but a full restart which (as I also learnt) is completely different from just shutting down and starting up again; that actually does nothing of importance ANYWAY!
One of the key differences between shutting down and restarting is that simply shutting down your computer does not close any of the programs and files you have open, it merely pushes pause on whatever is going on until it is turned on again.
"Although many people assume that a shutdown is a more comprehensive way to ensure that all processes are killed, the reality is that since Windows 8, this is a fallacy." -ProPrivacy digital privacy expert Ray Walsh
According to Ray “In older versions of Windows, both ‘shut down’ and ‘restart’ did exactly the same thing in terms of shutting down processes. However, since Windows 8, a new feature called Fast Startup has altered this considerably.”
HOW HAS THIS CHANGED THINGS?
Shutting down a Windows computer creates a deep hibernation file that your computer uses to allow for Fast Startup exactly as you left it, that being said, if you are experiencing an error your error will save into this file and present itself when starting it up again. A restart does not create this file at all and allows you to reset your applications and erase errors, a miracle solution really!
So, what do we do with this new information? Times have changed, software updated and now you've learnt the difference between restarting and shutting down, next time you run into a laptop error you know what to do.
The gist of things...
Shutting down and restarting are two different things ENTIRELY and errors won't go away by just putting your computer off, so restart that thing and if errors continue you can always call us for help!