If you shut down your Windows PC every night (or after work…), there’s really no need.
If you are in the habit of shutting down your Windows PC regularly, you may cause unnecessary work. Windows 10 and Windows 11 include more efficient ways to save energy – which also saves you valuable time.
Most people turn off their computers at the end of the day. This is understandable. If you don’t use a computer, it makes sense to save energy, wear, or reduce security risks.
From sleep mode, your computer will be ready to run faster
But there is a much better way. Instead, put your Windows PC to sleep, and your PC will use only a small portion of the power it takes in booting, ready to quickly resume when you need to use it again.
If you have a laptop, you can put it to sleep by closing the lid or pressing the sleep button on the keyboard.
However, to put your desktop computer to sleep, open the Start menu and click the Power icon (which looks like a circle with a line on it). In Windows 10, the power icon will be on the left sidebar. In Windows 11, you’ll find it in the lower right corner of the Start menu. In the pop-up that appears, select “Sleep”.
Hibernation is like sleeping
Alternatively, you can use the “hibernation” mode available on some computers. Hibernation saves the current state of your computer (such as the contents of working memory) on your hard drive or solid-state drive, and then turns it off. When you turn your computer back on, Windows will load this saved data from the disk and resume the session exactly where it left off.
Some may also want to shut down their computers to reduce the risk of intrusion or to make their computers “zombies” used in DDOS attacks. It is true that a Windows computer that is idle and connected to the Internet 24 hours a day is a security risk. However, if your computer is in sleep or hibernation mode, remote hackers are usually unable to gain access to your computer, so this is like turning it off completely without any inconvenience.
Talk about harassment. Every time you shut down your computer completely, set yourself a time penalty the next time you turn it on again. This is because your computer needs to start up. You may also need to take some time to restart all the apps you used.
If you put your PC to sleep instead, everything—the operating system, apps, and work data—will be ready for a quick boot. This will save you minutes of valuable time. Additionally, your computer can “sleep” automatically to perform updates if necessary and install them to complete before you’re ready to go.
Here and there, just turn off the device
However, it is still useful to completely turn off the computer here and there. If you know that you will not be using your computer for a long time, say a week, a month or more, it is best to simply turn it off.
If you’ve left your desktop computer running for several months and haven’t used it, consider also unplugging it to protect it from lightning strikes or other events when you’re away.
There is another case that requires a complete shutdown while troubleshooting. We all know that many problems can be resolved by turning off your computer for a few seconds and then turning it on again. When it restarts, Windows will have to restart all running applications, giving you a fresh start.