What Happens To Your Computer When You Click On These Buttons: Shut Down, Sleep & Restart?

If you are using a computer and running windows then you apparently know when you press the start menu button you will be presented with sleep, restart and shut down.

When you click on shut down it turns off the computer as the name describes, restart also shut down the computer but turns on again after some seconds.

Although clicking on shut down turns off your computer, experts have made it known to us that it won’t completely shut down your computer.

So What Happens When You Click On Shutdown?

At first, when we were using older versions of windows, shut down and restart used to perform the same task, but with the latest versions which start from windows 8 and windows 10, these latest versions come with a new feature called fast startup, which helps the computer in continuing from when the user turned off the computer, fast startup is enabled by default on Windows 10.

When you click on shut down on windows 10, all the programs currently running on your computer stops but doesn’t shut off your computer windows kernel.

What is the Windows Kernel?

According to Wikipedia, Windows kernel is the connection between all the software and hardware components of a computer.

That’s why most at times when you turn on your computer which has windows 10 running you will see “resume from hibernation”.

What Happens When You Click On Restart?

Restart, on the other hand, shuts down the computer and ends all the processes including the computer kernel, which means when you restart your computer you get a fresh start, but the downside is that it takes some time to be ready as compared to the shutdown process which has the kernel working at the background.

How Does Sleep Mode Work?

Sleep mode pauses all your running programs and turns off your computer screen so that you can continue with what you were doing when you are ready.

One negative thing about sleep mode is that it uses electricity when it’s activated as it doesn’t turn off your computer.

Conclusion

Shutting down your computer don’t completely shut it down as the kernel still works on your computer, anytime you turn it on, it will let you continue from where you left the other time, restarting your computer closes all programs, this process takes long for the screen to be ready as your computer takes time to load whiles sleep mode also pause all the programs currently running and turns off the display.

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