"Restart" vs. "Shut down"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken Isaacson
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Ken Isaacson

Vista Ultimate, SP1

What's the real difference between "restart" and "shut down" followed by
turning back on? I know (I think) that some updates don't install unless you
choose "shut down." Is that the only difference?

Thanks.

Ken Isaacson
SILENT COUNSEL, a legal thriller
www.KenIsaacson.com
 
Ken Isaacson said:
Vista Ultimate, SP1

What's the real difference between "restart" and "shut down" followed by
turning back on? I know (I think) that some updates don't install unless
you choose "shut down." Is that the only difference?

Thanks.

Ken Isaacson
SILENT COUNSEL, a legal thriller
www.KenIsaacson.com
Click to expand...

All updates install with restart and no need to use shutdown. Restart is a
soft boot and shutdown actually turns of power to all your hardware except a
small amount if you have the bios setup to allow you to power on with
keyboard.
 
If you click "shut down" you have to physically press the restart button on
your computer.
For software related issues there is no difference.
If your computer has locked up because of a hardware problem, most often due
to failing hard drive/RAM/power supply, you may have to turn it off and wait
a few seconds to see if you can reboot.
 
A total shutdown every once in a while is a good thing!

Especially try it if you have a strange problem that you can not get a
handle on. I have seen a total shutdown cure some real strange ones - from
misbehaving keyboards to an erratic mouse condition.

Same goes for a printer. When it acts up turn it off and unplug it for a
couple of minutes. The printer may just straighten itself out by doing so.
 
A 'cold boot' varies from a 'warm boot' in that power to the memory chips is
lost on the cold boot. Calling the 'unmaskable interrupt', Int zero, puts
the pointer on the input data bus to the first byte of memory, and it reads
the 'bootstrap' of the BIOS chip. If devices and memory are warm, the boot
is faster, but it does not insure that memory is flushed, and there is a
small risk of 'data out of bounds' errors. Vista is even more guilty of not
flushing memory than previous systems, since nothing is ever intentionally
'blanked'. On the other hand, never turning off the processor is considered
good for the chip, much like an incandescent light bulb.

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Shut down powers off the computer. When power is restored, the computer
resets itself and runs a POST (Power On Self Test) to check things out.
These things are not done on Restart.

Tyro.
 
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