Is there a right way and a wrong way to shut down or turn off my computer you might ask?
There absolutely is a right way to turn off or shut down your computer and a couple of really wrong ways to shut it down or turn it off. It is very important to go through the expected shut down procedure with a Windows/PC computer. If you do not do it the right way, you risk corrupting the Windows operating system and that can be a real bummer and a repair guy’s nightmare to fix it. You could also lose all of your valuable data like documents, pictures, music and everything that you have stored on your computer.
TIP: The RIGHT way to shut down and turn off your computer is as follows:
- End/close and save any open documents that you are working on.
- Close any open windows or boxes.
- If there is a second user logged onto your computer, log that user off.
- Then, navigate to the Windows button or orb or whatever you call it in the lower left hand corner of the screen where it normally is. Depending on your computer/version it may look like one of these:
- Click on the “Windows” button and then click on the “Power” button and finally click on the “Shutdown” option. The lower left hand side of my screen looks like this and includes the shut down symbol:
In most cases, this process will cause your computer to shut down and then turn itself off, if all is well. If there happen to be any open or running programs that you did not close out or end, the computer may ask you if you want to force them to end and then shut down. Your computer will keep the last saved version if you force the shut down. Or you may cancel the shut down, make sure your documents and programs are saved, then go through the shut down process again.
The two most common WRONG ways to shut down or turn off your computer are as follows:
- Holding the power button down until the computer turns itself off.
- Unplugging the power cord from the electrical socket while the computer is running.
Using either of these two ways to shut down or turn off your computer are surely going to cause a problem for you eventually. The Windows operating system can be very forgiving once or twice in a row and it may be able to repair itself if you are lucky, BUT eventually it will not come back up normally and then you will have a big problem. So, if at all possible, be patient and go through the normal and expected shut down process – your computer will be happy and so will you.