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The Worst Way to Turn Off Your Computer
The Problem
Whether you have a Windows computer or a Macintosh, or a laptop or a desktop, pressing and holding the power button for 10 seconds is the worst way to turn it off, with one exception.
The right way to turn off your computer
When your computer is working normally, here is the recommended way to turn off your computer:
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Windows: Click the “Start” or “Windows” button (the 4 “rectangles”) at the lower left corner of your screen, then the “power” icon to reveal the power menu, then “Shut down.” You can also make pressing and releasing (not holding) your power button do a Shut down.
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Macintosh: Click the Apple symbol at the top left corner of your screen, then “Shut Down...”
The Shut Down command starts an orderly process that closes all of your open documents and programs and disengages all of your disks, along with other tasks that enable your computer to turn itself off properly.
For emergency use only
Pressing and holding the power button for 10 seconds forces your computer to power off immediately, without performing any of the steps involved in doing a proper Shut Down. Using Shut Down is important for your computer to continue operating in a healthy manner, whereas frequently forcing off the power could cause a variety of problems.
The only time you would use this technique is when you want to turn it off but you can’t access the Shut Down command, i.e.:
- Your computer is stuck or frozen, e.g., you can’t move the mouse cursor, or you can move it but the computer seems to ignore all of your clicks.
- You’ve tried Shut Down, but after waiting a reasonable period of time (at least 5 minutes) and perhaps trying Shut Down again, it hasn’t turned off.
- Your computer screen is black so it appears to be off, but a regular press-and-release of the power button doesn’t turn it on. It may have gotten into a strange state, so in this case, pressing and holding the power button will generally force it to actually be off, enabling you to turn it back on again.
Potential problems
Forcing your computer to power off may cause a variety of problems, including:
- If it was busy copying files from one folder or disk to another, suddenly interrupting that could lead to data loss or disk corruption.
- If you were in the middle of writing or editing a document or an email, your recent changes (or possibly everything you wrote) might be lost.
- If a software update or installation was in progress, interrupting that process might cause problems.
- If you had a number of documents, emails, web sites, etc. open when the power was forced off, when you later turn your computer back on, it may not be easy to return to what you had open.
However, with newer computers and modern software (including features like AutoRecover in Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.), occasionally forcing off the power is not likely to cause major damage.
Best practices
I recommend:
- When turning your computer off, always use Shut Down (or Restart) whenever possible.
- Only force the power off when absolutely necessary. Do not use this method as a regular habit.
- For a desktop computer (which doesn’t have an internal battery like a laptop), if you must force it off, don’t pull out the power cord or switch off your surge protector. While that might seem easier than pressing and holding the power button, it could cause electrical surges that might damage your equipment.
- For a laptop, if you must force it off, press and hold the power button. If you are inclined to remove the battery, to avoid suddenly cutting off the power, I recommend only doing that when the power cord is still plugged in or after the laptop is already powered off.
- Ensure that your computer gets backed up on a regular basis.
- If you experience power outages, consider getting an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), also known as a battery backup or standby power supply.
Other choices
In addition to Shut Down, there are other things that you might choose to do with your computer, most of which do not actually turn it off:
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Just walk away: If you stop touching your mouse and keyboard, after a few minutes (or hours) your screen may: Show a screen saver (animation), turn black (display sleep), or go to Sleep, and all three of those may occur, in sequence. None of those actually turn off the computer, even though the screen is black.
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Close the lid: For a laptop, this typically puts the computer to Sleep. However, you might have set your computer not to Sleep when the lid is closed in order to make use of an external monitor.
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Update and shut down: On Windows, this choice will also appear in the power menu if there are pending system updates.
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Restart: This command first does a Shut Down, and then turns the computer back on again without your having to push the power button. I recommend doing this if your computer is acting strangely, especially if it has been on for days or weeks at a time.
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Update and restart: On Windows, this choice will also appear in the power menu if there are pending system updates.
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Sleep: This makes the screen go black and puts the computer into a low-power state, preserving everything you currently have open. Your computer is not off.
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Hibernate: On Windows, this uses a portion of your internal drive to save the state of your computer, and then powers it off. When you power it back on, it quickly returns to all of your programs and windows, just as they were. On Macintosh, hibernate is more complicated and is not enabled by default.
Where to go from here
As always, if any of my advice seems too difficult to do on your own, I recommend that you find someone you know and trust who can help you.
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