Does your computer feel slow or a bit buggy? The easiest fix is a simple restart. At The Computer Workshop, we see many computer problems that could have been solved just by restarting the machine every so often.
By restarting your computer at least once a week, you give it a chance to clear out temporary files to free up RAM.
It can install and activate critical software updates and patches to boost your online security.
Your system is able to have a fresh start which will lead to a smoother, faster and more secure computer.
If you work with your computer for hours—using many programs and keeping dozens of browser tabs open—your computer can get bogged down with running processes that consume memory and slow it down. A quick reboot frees up this memory by ending all unnecessary processes.
You might think shutting down your computer is the same as restarting it, but they’re not.
Restarting is like a full refresh. It completely shuts down everything and then starts it all back up. This is what you need to do to finish installing new updates and to fix nagging software problems.
Shutting Down is different. On most newer computers, this feature is designed to help your computer turn on faster next time. It saves some of the computer’s information to make a quicker start, but it doesn’t clear out the memory completely like a restart does.
Sleep is another option but not recommended. It puts your computer into a low power state, pausing all current activity and saving your work to RAM so you can quickly resume where you left off.
It should only be used for short breaks. If you leave it on for extended periods of time on battery power, it may run out and force a complete shutdown.
So, in a nutshell:
- Restart your computer once a week to keep it running at its best.
- Only use Sleep for short breaks
- Shut Down your computer at the end of the day or for overnight to save power.
