Every time my dad calls me about some
computer-based problem, I tell him reboot. 90% of the cases, the problems fixed. But,
there is a right way and a wrong way to go about rebooting your device. Let me show you what I mean.
So, the main reason why rebooting solves so many issues is that it clears up the RAM, which is short
for Random Access Memory. When your computer is on, you have background processes running, you have
logs that are being created, plus the programs that you work with create temporarily cache files.
Cache files are files that help your software load the information faster. So, you can think of it like
shorthand nodes that your computer takes, that help it quickly put together the original data. A proper
reboot cleans all of that out and gives your Windows system a fresh start. Now, what is a proper
reboot, though? Is it a restart or a shutdown? or it doesn't really matter? Well, it actually matters
a lot. So intuitively, when we see the options Shut Down and Restart, we assume that a Shut Down is
more comprehensive, and it kills all the processes. Well, that's not true. It's the Restart that kills
all processes. You see, many years ago with Windows 8, Microsoft introduced what's called the Fast Startup, which sounds a lot like a Netflix job. Now, I have to say, usually Microsoft isn't the
best at naming features but here, they did a good job. So, the Fast Startup became the default in
Windows. It's probably your default too, you just didn't pay much attention to it. The main purpose
of this, as the name suggests, is to save valuable seconds when you boot up your computer. It does
this by saving some of the system related files and drivers to a hibernation file during the
shutdown process. Then, when you turn on your PC again, it reads that hibernation file and reloads
the content, which makes it faster than a restart. Because when you do a restart, all the Windows,
drivers, devices, and services are initialized from scratch. So, because a Fast Startup doesn't load
a fresh session, some of the problems that it had before you shut down, may still continue after you
turn on your computer again or your device again. Now, you might have noticed this, and this
is something I was wondering about a bit, when you have to install a Windows update, it asks
you if you want to install updates and shut down or install updates and restart. So, even if you
select install and shut down, it's going to restart first and then shut down. That's because it wants
to clean things up with the restart. If you want to change your shut down experience and have a
proper shutdown, which acts like a restart, you can. You can turn off Fast Restart, especially if you
have a modern laptop or desktop with fast SSD hard drives. The reduction of startup time is going to
be minimal. To disable, it press the Windows button and type in Control Panel. Select that and then,
in the pane on the left, select 'Choose what the power buttons do'. Down here, under Shutdown settings,
you're going to see a checkbox for fast startup, which will probably be checked. If the selections
are grayed out, click on 'Change settings that are currently unavailable' up here, then uncheck fast
startup. Save your change and that's it. You don't have to worry about a clean reboot anymore, because
every time you shut down, it's going to act like a restart. I tried with fast startup on and off and
timed the boot up time on my PC and I couldn't see much of a difference, but I have a fairly powerful
setup. So, just test it out for yourself and see if it's worth having on or not. Now, this reminds me
of my ex-colleague at the office, who never shut down or restarted his computer, because he didn't
want IT to install updates on his workstation. So, I guess he had bad experience. IT usually installed
the updates at the end of the month, and he was responsible for month end reporting, which is
anyhow, a few stressful days at the beginning of the month. The last thing you want is to have your
system failing. So, I'm not sure if he's still doing that, or if that tactic still works at the office.
IT might now, be forcing a restart centrally. Anyhow, while we're on the topic of shutting down,
if you have Windows 11, you don't have to click the Windows icon, and then move all the way here,
click the power button and then, select what you want. Instead, just right-click on the Windows icon
and select what you want. That works in Windows 10 too, by the way. Okay, so I hope this quick tip was
helpful for you. If so, please give this video a thumbs up and subscribe, if you're unsubscribed
yet and I'm gonna see you in the next video. [Music]
