Ways of Turning Off a Computer

PCs have many ways of getting turned off. Each way has its own benefits. It is important to know the difference between the many ways of turning the computer off so you know which way works the best for a given scenario.

• Shut Down

This method uses no power at all. What happens is that the PC closes all the processes running on your computer. Be warned, when you shut down, you lose all your work. Shutting down a PC is a good idea when something strange happens, like if Windows somehow glitches. This is also a good idea if you are not going to use your computer for a very long time, since as mentioned before, it uses absolutely no energy.

• Restart

Restarting is pretty much the exact same as shutting down, except that the computer boots itself back up right after it shuts down. So it saves you the time of shutting down the computer, then turning it back on manually. This option is good for times when you are shutting down because of a glitch. Remember, restarting is just shutting down and starting up, so it doesn’t save your work.

• Log Off

This mode is does the same thing as shut down, but instead of turning off the computer, it returns you to the password screen. This closes all your programs. 

• Switch User

Switch user does almost the same as logging off. It also returns you to the password screen, the one where you enter in your password, choose between user accounts, etc. However, it does not close your programs. Once you go back to the user account menu screens, you can log into another account.

• Lock

If you have a child and you are afraid that he/she will destroy your work while you are gone, you can lock the computer. Say you really need to go get a drink of water, but there’s a kid in the house who might close all your work. You can lock your computer, and keep them out of your stuff! Locking the computer takes you to the password screen, so you can quickly type your password back in once you’re done and continue working.

• Sleep

Unlike shutting down, sleeping saves your work. It goes into a low-power state, so you can get your computer up and running in a couple seconds. The computer doesn’t really officially turn off, it just turns off the monitor and waits for you to wake it up again. This mode is good for times when you leave the computer for a short time.

• Hybrid Sleep

Hybrid sleep is a relatively new feature that is very similar to regular sleep. It is used for desktops. Because regular sleep doesn’t save the information that’s open on the hard drive, if a power outage occurs, the desktop can lose all the stuff that’s open. Hybrid sleep just saves your open programs to the hard drive, so in case the power goes out, your things are safe. 

• Hibernate

When your computer hibernates, it turns off, but saves your open applications and stuff on the hard drive. Hibernation uses practically no energy. I like to think of it as “sleep” that takes longer to boot up. It takes a shorter time to wake up from hibernation than shut down. I hibernate my computer when I leave for a few hours or more.

Those are the many different ways that you can turn off your PC. Some aren’t necessarily ways to turn off computers, like log off, switch user, etc., but they are ways of saving your work, changing users, stuff like that. Windows sure has a lot of options! It’s good to know that there are chooses, so we can use the best way to turn off a computer to fit our needs.