Using the power switch to shutdown computers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sean
  • Start date Start date
S

Sean

I was unaware until recently that pressing the power switch on a
computer shuts it down very quickly.

What are the differences between using this and shuting it down from
the start menu?

Does it perform a proper shutdown? and why is it so much quicker than
shutting it down from the start menu?

Sean
 
The power switch is quicker because it cuts the power... (for all intents
and purposes, anyway)

Use the shut down from the start menu, because the computer needs to do some
cleanup before it can shut down. YOu run the risk of file corruption if you
do not use the shut down option from the start menu.

Depending on your computer setup, you may be able to set your power button
to put your computer in sleep mode. I believe this option may exist in the
power options in the control panel. I don't have a W2K machine handy to
verify that though. Sorry.

Ray at work
 
Sean said:
I was unaware until recently that pressing the power switch on a
computer shuts it down very quickly.

What are the differences between using this and shuting it down from
the start menu?
Click to expand...

Well, for one thing, if you use Outlook Express, you'll eventually
lose your email and newsgroups. Shutting Windows down this
way is NOT recommended. Ever.

Rick
 
Sean said:
I was unaware until recently that pressing the power switch on a
computer shuts it down very quickly.

What are the differences between using this and shuting it down from
the start menu?

Does it perform a proper shutdown? and why is it so much quicker than
shutting it down from the start menu?

Sean
Click to expand...

it depends on the capability of the computer bios and how you configure the
os. on some new machines you can configure the power button to sleep rather
than turning off the power. this essentially saves an image of ram on the
hd and quickly 'turns off'. on wakeup it just reloads the memory image and
starts up pretty much where it left off. some hardware and programs don't
like this though, especially ones that maintain a network connection or use
other hardware... and if there is a problem in memory it won't reinitialize
it when it wakes up.
 
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