How (And Why) To Shut Down Your Computer

While most days, you should lock your computer when ending the day, shutting down your PC and rebooting it on occasion can offer some huge benefits. Doing so helps you avoid some of the more common computer problems that can be highly disruptive and hold you back from achieving productivity.

How a Full Shutdown Helps

Just like other types of machines, a computer needs a break every so often so it can keep running smoothly.

Your computer will grow more susceptible to slowdowns, data corruption, and other frustrations. This is because of stored data that can cause problems if you don’t clear it out from time to time. For example, some background processes that run can continue to drain resources if you don’t shut down your computer and give them a break.

What a Full Shutdown Entails

A full shutdown is more involved than closing your laptop lid or hitting the physical power button.

Depending on the device, these actions will only put your computer to sleep or send it into hibernation mode rather than shut it down. While it’s a bit of an inconvenience, you should power down the device by going to your Start menu (for Windows users) or the Apple menu (for Mac users) and selecting the option for Shut Down. This is a systematic process that closes out all running applications and clears out temporary files and memory caches that cause the problems detailed above.

Think about it as tucking your computer in for the night, and when you return, it’ll be fresh and ready for more productivity.

How Full Shutdowns Improve Your Security

Most of the important security work your IT administrators do is actually applied after your device gets shut down, so you can imagine what happens when it doesn’t get shut down.

A full shutdown is when security updates are applied, as most operating systems need a reboot to make sure they’re installed correctly. If you’re never shutting down your computer, then it stands to reason that these updates aren’t being applied in a timely manner. This puts your business at risk and makes you more vulnerable to threats.

Don’t forget, however, if you are a client of JensenIT and we perform ongoing maintenance across your network, you don’t want to leave your computer offline after hours, as that’s when our technicians might perform critical updates, patches, and maintenance!

If you’re not already a client of ours, however, we’d love to have a chat and find out why! To learn more about the solutions and services we offer, give us a call at (847) 803-0044.