Some say it’s best to shut down your computer at the end of each day, or simply put it into sleep mode. Everyone’s heard different advice, so it’s easy to see why it’s confusing.
Let’s face it, your computer wasn’t cheap. You want to keep it going for as long as possible. Sometimes you think you’re doing the right thing to keep it going, but you end up doing more harm than good.
So, let’s zero it on it…
Is it better to shut down or sleep your computer?
Let’s cut to the chase. Leaving your computer on 24/7 aka letting it “sleep” doesn’t do what you think it does. It’s not actually sleeping – it’s still quietly running software in the background.
If you shut it down each night before bed, you’re allowing it to properly close everything. Then when you reboot the next day everything starts fresh.
“But rebooting takes too long!”
A proper reboot cycle shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes. It depends how many programs you have that open automatically.
Very slow reboots can be a symptom of a larger problem. It could mean your hard drive is damaged, or you have a virus, your system is out of date or a hacker is on your system. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you’re experiencing slower than normal reboot times.
Other benefits of restarting
Restarting is a different process. It’s a shut down that automatically reboots the computer for you right away. What this does is flushes out the memory and allows the computer to detect new updates. Quite often you have to restart after a major system update. This isn’t what you will do at the end of the day, but rather something to consider during the day if your computer seems slow and laggy.
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