Reboot? Shutdown? Lock? Logoff? Hibernate?
This week’s article “What to do with your Desktop” is written by our owner Alex Bleam. It will be featuring how to shut down your Desktop and Next month will be how to shut down your laptop.
At the end of your day, what do you do with your computer? Computer problems happen, there is no getting around that but the way you end your day on your computer can save you many future problems that will occur if done improperly. At Frogworks, we help you get those problems resolved as quickly as possible. While there are new computers coming out all the time and both Microsoft and Apple release new operating systems (and update to those operating systems) all the time, one thing has not changed.
Rebooting your computer is both necessary and helps in the day-to-day operation of your computer. Let’s start with what is necessary and for the sake of this article, we are going to just refer to our frenemies at Microsoft – but this applies to Apple computers, too.
Microsoft releases updates all the time. These updates plug holes in the operating system of the computer, helping to keep you safer. Other updates include hardware updates (known as drivers) as the hardware manufacturers determine that THEIR software needs updates too, so they release their updates to Microsoft and in turn Microsoft pushes them down to your computer.
Any combination of these updates could require you to reboot your computer. Frogworks will sometimes let you know, via a message that pops up on your screen, that we have installed an update on your computer that requires an IMMEDIATE reboot – these are usually urgent security or critical updates.
So, if we do that, why reboot your computer at all? Rebooting your computer helps keep it running smoothly. It clears the memory, stopping any tasks that are eating up RAM. Even if you’ve closed an app, it could still tap your memory.
If your computer is still running slow, this one insider trick could help.
At the end of the day, click the start button, then the power button and choose restart, then walk away from your computer knowing that your computer will be freshly booted in the morning and all you must do is login. You may see that updates were installed on the overnight reboot and that is okay. You should expect that.
What happens if you shut your computer down at night? Well, if you do this, Frogworks cannot do any maintenance on your computer, this includes anything from disk maintenance to updates, to regular checks. But fear not, as soon as our software connects to the internet on the next boot up, some of things will run but not affect your computer nearly as much as being vulnerable to attacks because your computer is not getting updated.
Locking your computer at the end of the day (or during the day) is something you can do. Our clients will typically do this when they are in the middle of work that is not really possible to save and walk away. Think multiple browser tabs open, emails open, documents open. By locking your computer all of those items stay open. Our software is smart enough to understand the computer is being used and will not reboot the computer while it thinks it is being used. There are times where Frogworks is syncing your email or Cloud9 powered by Frogworks and locking your computer is a safe way to allow those things to sync overnight.
Above all, if you have a problem or question, don’t hesitate to reach out to us, we are here so you can focus on your business, and we will focus on your technology.
