Why You Should Restart Your Computer
At the end of the workday, it’s important that you take the correct steps to start the following morning on the right foot. The best way? Restart your computer, rather than shutting it down or letting it enter Sleep mode. It may seem like a little, somewhat ambiguous, piece of advice, but here’s the example that immediately comes to mind that’ll sell you on restarting.
You’re in the middle of your workday, you’re motivated, and have plenty on your plate. & then what happens? Your computer decides spontaneously, without much warning, that NOW is the time to update. Not only that, it always seems like to lie about how much time is left. The lie is that it’ll either “only take a few minutes,” or it’ll “take 72 hours.” Either way–it’s wrong! Your day is interrupted, work is potentially unsaved, and you have no idea how long you’ll be down.
How can you avoid that problem? Restart your computer at the end of the workday! That way, your computer is still on and can conduct those pesky updates while you’re off. In fact, “Windows devices need to be online for at least eight hours to get the latest updates and have them correctly installed,” says Sergiu Gatlan with Bleeping Computer. Say goodbye to staring at the “8 minutes left” notification for a half hour or more!
Read the table below to learn more about the many benefits of restarting, rather than your other options!
| Your Options: | |||||
| What you want to happen: | Restart | Log Out | Lock Screen | Shut Down | Sleep |
| Current Anti-Virus at all times | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No. It’ll have old ones at the start of the day. They could be days/weeks out-of-date after the weekend or vacation. | |
| Microsoft/Windows updates will be done during off hours | ✓ | Partially. The updates occur but may not be fully installed. | No. They’ll be missing since last powered up. This can lead to either application/reboot during your workday, with little notice or machine instability and insecurity. | ||
| If you’re a Gold or Silver client: Automatic Hard Drive defrags will be done during off hours | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No. They’ll have to be done during the day which makes your computer run at a much-reduced speed. | |
| Faster operations in the morning because the machine won’t be catching up on processes that got missed overnight | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No. It’ll be slower because it’ll be catching up. On Mondays, it’ll be even more so due to the complete Anti-Virus scan of the system. | |
| Significantly less risk to both the user and organization because users will be using machines that are up-to-date first thing in the morning | ✓ | Yes, assuming the updates are fully installed, which may not be the case. | No. Higher risk because the machines will be out-of-date first thing. | ||
| Will run auto-snapshot of system – which we use to do quick recovers when a machine is infected/damaged | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No. It’ll be missed, inhibiting our ability to do quick recovers if/when your machine is infected or damaged. | |
| Longer machine life because the wear and tear of power-cycling is removed | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No. Shorter machine life because of daily wear and tear. | |
| Improved security because user credentials are required at reboot | ✓ | ✓ | Depends on your Lock settings and computer. For us, credentials are required when returning to our computers after locking them. | ✓ | Depends on your Sleep settings. You can turn on a Sleep timer, which’ll turn off the computer &/or display after a certain amount of time. Then, you can also turn on requiring credentials after a certain amount of time in Sleep mode. |
| Improved performance because computer resources are cleaned up and reset | ✓ | No. They aren’t cleaned up so the machine’ll run slower. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Clean backups because network resources will be released during restart | ✓ | ✓ | No. Because resources are most likely still in use, those items will be skipped during the backup. | ✓ | ✓ |
Bill Hogan is the Owner and President of Partners Plus. He has 40 years of experience in the technology industry, specifically IT support services. Bill has spoken at seminars all over the country about network management. Partners Plus was selected by PHL17 as the best Computer and Information Technology Support Company in the greater Philadelphia area in 2018.
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