Phoenix IT Company Tip of the Week: To Shut Down or Restart?

Sometimes, your computer gets stuck in between a process. The screen freezes, and you are not able to move your cursor. You are confused: Should I switch off the computer or restart it? Many of you might think that both these processes have the result. But that’s not true.

Today, Phoenix IT firm MyTek shares with you some valuable tips to handle computer glitches. Some require a start, while others get resolved with a shutdown. In a few other cases, you need a mix of restart and shutdown to rectify the glitch.

Let’s understand what differentiates computer restart and shutdown.

What’s the Difference Between Restarting Your Computer and Shutting it Down?

Till Windows 7 version, the computer shut down, and restart was the same process. The shutdown process resets the RAM. When you restart the computer, you find no active elective processes on your system. However, with the advent of Microsoft Windows 8, the first “metro” OS, this process has seen a change. This operating system consists of a new startup process named Fast Startup. With Fast Startup, your device follows different processes for both restart and shutdown.

Shut Down

With Fast Startup starting your machine is a quick process, the same holds for shutting down.

The files and programs close down when the computer goes into shutdown mode; however, the OS goes into standby mode. While the computer is shut down, the Windows reactivation is also faster, unlike the standby and hibernate mode. Since most of the computers won’t stop, the issues that made you shut down the computer will reoccur upon rebooting.

Restart

However, restarting ends all the system processes. Here, you reboot the system afresh at the motherboard level. Hence, it requires more time to restart the system than shutting it down. 

Ironically, “shutting down” your computer still leaves many components of your computer active. Hence, restarting your system is the best option when troubleshooting a problem.

Next time you hear the word reboot, you know how the process of rebooting can help you.

Are you looking for more information about the functioning of an operating system? Or, do you have any technical issues in your mind? If so, subscribe to Phoenix IT firm MyTek’s blogs.

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