"Shut Down" Doesn't Actually Shut Down Your PC
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2022-05-05
·
928 words · ~4 min read
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Even if you know absolutely nothing about computers,
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turning off a PC is pretty simple, right?
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I mean, you press the button on the front or the side,
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or just click shut down on the Windows Start menu,
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and that's supposed to do the trick.
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But wait!
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It turns out that shut down in Windows 10
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doesn't actually mean shut down.
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Is this just another example of computer companies
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not trusting us to operate our own stuff?
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Or is something else going on?
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So here's the deal.
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Remember the hibernate feature that became popular
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back in the days of Windows 2000,
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where you could save all the contents of your RAM
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to your disc before powering the computer off,
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which would significantly cut down on startup time?
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Do you remember that?
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Hibernate was a big deal
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because older laptops tended to be power hogs.
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So hibernate offered a way to quickly resume working
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without putting the machine in standby or sleep modes
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that would still drop power.
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As laptops have become more power efficient over the years,
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hibernate was de-emphasized,
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although you can still show the hibernate command
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in the Start menu by checking this box.
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In favor of a feature that allows you to
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switch between hibernate mode and hibernate mode,
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you can also switch between hibernate mode and hibernate mode.
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This is a feature called hybrid sleep,
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which would put the computer in sleep mode,
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but also dump the contents of RAM to the disc.
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So the computer would wake up more quickly
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than it would from pure hibernation,
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but in case of power loss,
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the system could still recover its previous state
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from its hard drive or SSD.
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So with that established,
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let's bring it back to the title of the video.
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What happens when you click shut down?
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Well, Microsoft has taken the idea behind hybrid sleep
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and added yet another feature called fast startup
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that actually changes the way your computer
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turns on and off.
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So let's take a look at that.
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First off,
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you can turn on hibernate mode
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by clicking the button on the top right corner.
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Microsoft has taken the idea behind hybrid sleep
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and added yet another feature called fast startup
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that actually changes the way your computer shuts down.
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Here's how it works.
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Fast startup,
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which is enabled by default on Windows 10,
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takes the state of the Windows kernel,
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which is essentially the core elements
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of the operating system,
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and saves it to the disc.
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However,
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this only happens after Windows logs you off,
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so none of the data from programs
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or files you were working on get saved.
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In this sense,
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it's closer to a normal shutdown than hibernation,
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but don't worry.
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It doesn't get 100% of the way there.
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The benefit of fast startup
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is exactly what it sounds like.
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Your PC doesn't have to spend tons of time
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reinitializing critical Windows components
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when you power the system back on,
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allowing for shorter boot times.
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However,
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there's a downside
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that can cause really puzzling issues
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if you're unaware that fast startup even exists.
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Problems that are present within the kernel itself,
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such as a misbehaving device driver,
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that would normally disappear with a full shutdown,
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can recur when you start your computer back up
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if you have fast startup enabled.
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So because Microsoft figures people are more likely
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to hit restart than shut down
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if some bug necessitates a reboot,
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restart actually cycles your PC through a full shutdown,
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whereas shut down counterintuitively does not.
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Wow, that's wild.
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But there are ways around fast startup
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if you want to ensure your computer
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is completely clearing out its current state
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every time you turn it off.
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You can simply disable fast startup
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by going to control panel, then power settings,
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then choose what the power buttons do,
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not the most obvious place to find it,
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but at least it's a simple fix.
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You can also leave fast startup enabled
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and perform a full shutdown on demand
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by holding the shift key
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when clicking shut down from the start menu.
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There's a chance you may not even miss
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the slightly faster startup
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if you're running a modern system with a speedy SSD,
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so it might be worth it to bust out the stopwatch
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and see how much time you're saving
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with the feature on versus off,
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a totally normal thing
3:14
that people do with their free time.
3:16
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Well, that's it for this video, guys.
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Thanks for watching.
3:57
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