Imagine my horror the other day, when I saw an otherwise sharp friend shut down his laptop by holding down the power button until the system switched off. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I cried. "Why did you do that?"
"What? I was just turning off my PC," he replied innocently.
Sometimes I forget that some of the stuff I take for granted isn't common knowledge. So, in case you've been committing the same heinous shutdown crime, allow me to enlighten you.
That is not, repeat, not the proper way to shut down a PC. The proper way is to click Start, Shut down. (I know, it's ridiculous that after all these years, Microsoft still forces you to use the Start button to end your computing session.)
Alternately, you can press (and immediately release!) the power button, which will either shut down your PC or put it in sleep/hibernate mode, depending on how Windows is configured. (To change that configuration, see Change the function of your laptop's power button.)
The only time you should press and hold the power button is if your computer is locked up and otherwise unresponsive. A five-second press will usually force a "hard" power-off, after which you should wait another five seconds before turning the machine back on.
But if you do this all the time, Windows won't be able to perform its necessary shutdown housekeeping stuff, and ultimately you'll muck up the OS.
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Comments
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SAM said: my mate use to do hard shut downs then there was a horid sound coming from the hdd then the hdd failed
SAM said: my mate use to do hard shut downs then there was a horid sound coming from the hdd then the hdd failed
Mr B said: Or maybe MS and laptop manufacturers might be better off accepting that human behaviour is largely ingrained and then engineering their systems to respond better to that rather than the other way round and then trying to rely on educating ppl how to work around computers idiosyncrasies
Mr B said: Or maybe MS and laptop manufacturers might be better off accepting that human behaviour is largely ingrained and then engineering their systems to respond better to that rather than the other way round and then trying to rely on educating ppl how to work around computers idiosyncrasies
Nancy said: Jeez - what a fcukwit He should be banned off computers for life
Nancy said: Jeez - what a fcukwit He should be banned off computers for life
Al said: He covered that his friend was holding the power button down which is a hard shutdown what to do when i press the power button is what happens when you press it once rather than holding it
Al said: He covered that his friend was holding the power button down which is a hard shutdown what to do when i press the power button is what happens when you press it once rather than holding it
T0SH said: Did it ever occur to you that perhaps that laptop was set in advanced power management to shutdown as the choice in the What to do when I press the power button Cheers HC
T0SH said: Did it ever occur to you that perhaps that laptop was set in advanced power management to shutdown as the choice in the What to do when I press the power button Cheers HC