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Slashdot Asks: Do You (Ever) Shut Down Your Computer? (onmsft.com) 304

Posted by msmash from the where-do-we-stand-with-this? dept.
New submitter dvda247 writes: A discussion of if people turn off their Windows 10 PCs anymore? Newer hardware and operating system changes make PCs work differently. Do you shut off your Windows 10 PC anymore? Or do you put it in sleep or hibernate mode? We are broadening the discussion to include desktop computers and laptops that are running Linux-based operating systems, or macOS, or ChromeOS. Additionally, how often do you restart your computer?
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Slashdot Asks: Do You (Ever) Shut Down Your Computer? More

Slashdot Asks: Do You (Ever) Shut Down Your Computer?

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  • This is a joke, right? (Score:5, Informative)

    by sh00z ( 206503 ) <sh00z AT yahoo DOT com> on Thursday August 15, 2019 @01:34PM (#59090410) Journal
    Windows 10 can't even re-establish a VPN connection when switching back and forth between wired and wireless networks. I have to restart almost every day.

    • Re:This is a joke, right? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @01:36PM (#59090430)

      My win10 shuts itself down weekly after security patch tuesday

      • Yes, Microsoft is also in control of my computer.

        No matter what I'm in the middle of, Microsoft decides that whatever they want is more important.

      • Your problem may be that you're running Windows 10 Extra Insecure Edition, which gets patched weekly.

        For everyone else, though, "Patch Tuesday" means the second Tuesday of each month.

    • I'm one of those masochists involved in the "Insider" program, so the damned thing regularly updates and restarts quite often. I shut it down manually when one of the updates clearly caused trouble, which is not uncommon. Does shutdown actually clear sys cache more effectively than mere restart? Beats me, I just do it when there seems no other option.

      • Now that Windows 10 hibernates the core OS on shut down, a restart is the only way to truly get a clean boot if that's enabled.

    • I find it easier to reestablish my VPN by just reconnecting to the VPN.

  • I WFH and have the entire network on UPS + now have 22kW generator as well so can survive blips without the network burping and longer outages without issues. I can tell when the speakers and printer go offline and come back, but otherwise I may not even notice when the power goes out unless the furnace is running. Otherwise no, I only shut down when rewiring or when doing a hardware swap/upgrade that requires it.

    • I do not have a generator (yet), but have some big UPS. The uptime of my Windows (not 10) PC is currently about 200 days. I have bought more RAM for it, next time it crashes I'm going to install it.

      My Linux servers have similar uptime, though rebooting them is not such a big deal (I can make services start on boot, but it is more difficult to save a Windows session (running programs, their state, window positions etc)).

  • Only when I have guests staying... (Score:5, Informative)

    by mindwhip ( 894744 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @01:36PM (#59090432)

    Only when I have guests staying because the fan noise would be a problem for them sleeping. I do turn my monitors off however.

  • Yes I Do (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tempest_2084 ( 605915 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @01:36PM (#59090434)
    I shut my PC down every night. There's no reason to leave it on from the time I go to bed until I come home and need it the next day. Why leave it on all day just wasting power and wearing out parts (even sleep/hibernation uses power)? Of course I have a desktop PC so if I was using a laptop I might just put it to sleep.
    • Ditto. No special reason to leave it on all night, so I don't....

    • Re:Yes I Do (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @01:51PM (#59090540)

      Since computers are mostly solid-states these days (except for fans), turning your computers on/off on a daily basis is what wears them out. Electronics last longer when continuously powered.

      • >>Electronics last longer when continuously powered.

        That may be true, but my computer is has been going strong for 10 years now.

      • Electronics last longer when continuously powered.
        That is nonsense.

      • Re:Yes I Do (Score:5, Insightful)

        by marvinglenn ( 195135 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @02:36PM (#59090766)

        Electronics last longer when continuously powered.

        Need evidence to support this claim.

      • You know, I have been using computer for decades now. I never really noticed any problems with the electronics wearing out.

        Over the past 30+ year I had the following failures.

        TI-99-4a Cartridge Reader failed (Probably due to a broken pin from pushing and pulling cartridges)
        Amstrad PC 1512C I had disk drive A fail. This Computer didn't have a hard disk, so Drive A did all the work.
        486 DX 50MHZ. A modem failed, due to close lightning strike.
        Duel Pentium 200 - A video card failed (SMP Computers were a new t

    • Sleep (Score:4)

      by fred6666 ( 4718031 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @01:53PM (#59090552)

      sleep mode uses almost no power, boot is almost instant, and you keep your stuff open. No reason to turn it off completely every night.

      • Every sleep mode I've tried eventually has issues. Aside from using a laptop, I see no need for it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
        How long does your computer take to boot up? Mine is less than 15 seconds. Since I typically only use it between 6p-10p, there's no point in having it on the other 20 hours.. even if sleep mode uses almost no power.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I use hibernation mode. That way I can turn it off at the wall to save power at night, but then pick up again exactly where I left off in the morning.

      At least I do on my development machine. For the laptop which is mostly browsing I just shut it down normally.

      • I use hibernation mode. That way I can turn it off at the wall to save power at night, but then pick up again exactly where I left off in the morning.

        At least I do on my development machine. For the laptop which is mostly browsing I just shut it down normally.

        Same here, with development I usually leave a bunch of documents open in a particular location I'd rather not lose. Hibernating is full power off so it doesn't matter much. I try to full reboot every couple of weeks but even then I seem to have every couple months when the computer I thought I hibernated (probably just forgot) was force rebooted for an update with nothing where I left it and having been running for I don't know how long. Thanks again MS...

    • Hibernation does not use more power than normal shutdown. Please read about it on Wikipedia or anywhere else.

      And let's be honest: even when you shut down your PC it still consumes a little bit of power (standby mode) and if you really care about saving the environment you should physically unplug it or use the PSU on/off switch if you have one.

      • >> if you really care about saving the environment you should physically unplug it or use the PSU on/off switch if you have one.

        Never said I was shutting it down to 'save the environment'. Keep your religion to yourself thanks.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jon3k ( 691256 )
      I think the estimate in hibernate is around 2-5w. It's not worth the effort to get all my applications and files back open. Probably consumes more power getting it all set back up than I save by avoiding 2-5w of power usage during the night.

      At $0.10/kWh on the high end that's 0.005kWh, so over the night and day that I'm not there and sleeping or at work thats $0.008 or about $0.24 a month.

      I will gladly pay 24 cents a month to not have to shut down my computer, wait for it to power up and restart all
    • Hibernation doesn't use power...

      When Windows puts the system into a hibernation state, it's taking the data residing in memory and spinning it off to a hibernation file on the storage device, and then shuts the system down completely. When the computer is powered back on, it isn't necessary for Windows to reload all the various applications you care about because it's all available in the hibernation file and loads much much faster than a standard boot with application loading.

      As to the original quest
      • If your windows 10 is set up to have hibernate on then shutdown also does a form of hibernation. Basically it just logs you off and then creates a hibernation file that is everything that would be available at the login screen. If you reboot then it has to reload everything needed to get you to the login screen. Of course you can turn off hibernation with I believe "powercfg -h" at a command line with admin privs.

  • At work I shut down my Win10 machine nightly. I don't need to remote into it, so there's no reason to waste any power the 16 hrs I'm not there. I guess it probably will go into a deep sleep, but my morning routine is to drop my stuff, turn it on, go grab a coffee, come back, and log in. Not powering down wouldn't speed that up. And I don't trust Windows to wake gracefully, not have some process running wild and dragging it down, and to be able to reconnect to the network drives. Clean boot and it mostly wor

  • No (Score:2)

    by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

    It sits on a nother floor, next to my server. I just put it in energy saving mode and hit some keys on the keyboard when I need it.

    Probably not very efficient but again, there's a server running 24/7 so I doubt that THIS is the major energy cost factor in the house.

  • Collecting uptime is a silly endeavor on a laptop or personal computing device that can boot up in 15 seconds. Why would I waste that energy?

    • To quote SwiftOnSecurity [twitter.com]:

      Congratulations, it's been two years since you proved your operating system will boot up after a power failure. You're obviously a genius.

      I tend to keep my personal machines on all the time, mostly because I'm too lazy to close browser windows or half-worked projects (though they usually auto-save). Every month I'll go through a full patch and reboot cycle, though.

      My servers all have startup sequences configured properly, so they patch themselves monthly and reboot themselves, and I haven't actually checked in the past year or so, but I'm pretty sure cron still does its job.

      • I let my computer turn itself off. It's smart enough to figure out I've ignored it for a while. Ditto with the screen. . As for the colour laser printer - it uses zero energy since it told me it wants new imaging unit that costs more than the printer!

  • Linux & OS X - Almost never. Uptime is usually around 6-8 months before power outages or other factors force it

    Windows - I don't turn it off. I have to restart multiple times daily for some dumb reason or another.

    I really loathe restarting my computer. I have all the things I want to have open, terminals aset up just so. I don't want to distract myself with managing it all once I've got it set up properly.

    • Same here, although not multiple times per day.

      Since I can connect and work from home, what I do to "avoid" potential issues is to reboot and make sure it is up and at the login prompt before I go home.

  • My Windows 10 PC shuts itself down at least once a week to some random glitch.

  • I shut them down both via software and hard via the manual power button on the PSU itself. Why? Because most people don't know this - but even though you shut it down via the power button (which, btw. is a SOFT button) - the motherboard still have power, there are usually some leds that will tell you this if you look inside your pc, and even if they don't show on particular motherboards, you can measure with a voltmeter that the machine is indeed still active, albeit most components in hibernation/sleep mod

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lgw ( 121541 )

      My home server uses an Intel server board. Not cheap, but one upside is: the secondary Spy-o-Matic 9000 processor has its own, separate network jack. (And, yes, I believe it only uses that, perhaps I need a better grade of tinfoil for my hat.)

    • The ATX standard power supply has a +5Volt Standby line. This line is ALWAYS powered when the power supply has AC power. That +5VSB line is what powers the circuitry that detects if you pushed the power button on the front of the machine in order to fully turn it on, and it can also power the Management Engine.

      If you REALLY want your computer to be off, flip the switch on the back of the power supply. This disconnects AC power from the Power Supply, and you can rest assured that your computer is indeed off
  • After monthly maintenance, updates and backups. Hibernation any other day.
  • I almost always shutdown my work computer (Dell something laptop, Windows 10) when I'm done for the day. It doesn't fully recover from sleep mode -- it's more like a zombie. Restart personal (Win 7 pro) machine a couple times per week. IMHO, it's still MS-DOS.
  • I shutdown my computer at night before going to sleep. Whether or not this is detrimental to the longevity of the hardware remains to be seen. I would rather save on my utility bill and be a more responsible steward of the earth.
  • Windows update forces a reboot periodically,other than that it's either running or asleep all the time. Running Windows 10 pro, Linux, FreeBSD, on various hardware and VMs.I do shut off a lot of VMs and PCs that I don't use every day, but that's probably just habit or wanting the batteries to be charged for next time.
  • Every night. I click on an icon that runs a .bat file. The .bat file does a backup and then powers down the PC. I have found Windows to become unstable if I don't shut it down frequently (i.e., once or twice a week). So I incorporate the shutdown into my daily backup routine. I have no need to leave it running all night.

  • Is "None of the Above" An Acceptable Answer? (Score:3)

    by jvp ( 27996 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @01:49PM (#59090524)

    My Windows 10 rig (like my Windows 8 before it, and 7 before it, etc) stays running 24/7/365 unless power becomes a thing, or maintenance is required. I don't hibernate/sleep/etc it, either. It just stays running.

    Same with my servers in the basement.

  • I always sleep my laptop at night and when moving between locations. Reboots are rare, sometimes driven by updates, occasionally due to issues with dynamic network switching (a logout/login usually fixes those), and very rarely if ever due to application or memory issues.
  • I also don't remember the last time I intentionally turned on a Windows PC.

  • Since i am usually out for the weekend, i shut down my computer once a week. Uptime is usually five days and half. Linux exclusively. Sometimes i cannot leave so it's two to three weeks in a row. Never came into any trouble.

  • Yes, if it's not going to be used for a while, I either power it off, or at least hibernate it. This goes for both laptops and desktops. If it's going to be disused for a short time, I might suspend a laptop. As my personal desktop contains a large number of fairly old spinning rust drives (now 1-2 years outside of their 5 year warranty period), I prefer to to leave it running 100% of the time, to avoid start-stop cycles (disk timeouts off). I've found start-stop to be a much more reliable murderer of disk
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Shutting down has a psychological effect on me, that I actually like.
    When the work computer gets shut off, the workday is over.
    When my home computer has been turned off at night, that keeps me from getting back to it when I'm supposed to fall asleep.

    However, since I got a NVME SSD for my home desktop computer, booting up into Linux/X11 is not noticeably slower than waking up from standby, but that has not broken down the psychological barrier... yet.

  • MacBook Pro, almost never do I turn it off.
    Intel Nuc Ubuntu machine, yes when I am not using it.
    Windows 10 Desktop, again when I am not using.

    The later 2 have different purposes, they get used often, but not often enough that they need to be running.
    MacBook is my primary computer so it almost never gets turned off, usually by accident me leaving something running that drains the battery like a netflix video.

  • Only when . . . (Score:3)

    by DickBreath ( 207180 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @01:54PM (#59090562) Homepage
    I only shut down when I'm tired of the noise and vibration from the SSDs and NVMEs.

  • I have desktop that acts as a DVR for my security cameras and back ups that hing doesn't get rebooted unless an update requires it. My laptop on the other hand I put to sleep if it's on my dock but if I'm traveling with it I shut it down.

  • Starting with Windows 8 shut down by default is hibernate, except all user applications are unloaded.

    I do shutdown my PC and laptop after finishing working with them without using hibernate or sleep, because the former requires either a file (hiberfil.sys in Windows) or SWAP (in Linux) and is generally slower than just shutting down, while the latter leaves blinking lights which drive me crazy. Also, sleep is not always reliable especially under Linux which is another reason why I don't use it: e.g. my cu

  • Windows 10 workstation-class laptop. I reboot it once or twice a month for updates and that is it. It stays on when I am sleeping. It stays on when I am not home. If it is traveling with me then I will put it in sleep mode.

  • I generally only my shut desktop PCs down if I'm going to be away from them for an extended period. My work PC is on 24/7 generally since I need to connect to it from home and vice versa. I attach large battery backups to them so that they will stay on and/or shut down gracefully if the power goes out.

    Laptops I routinely shut down though unless I'm actively using them.

  • Unless I need to get into the case, I rarely shut down my Windows 10 system. Unfortunately, there was a power outage and the power company did a jig on my M.2 NVME boot drive yesterday. I spent ten minutes re-installing Windows and another hour to reinstall my core applications. I haven't had a corrupted boot drive in over a decade.
  • ... and shut it down once a week or so.
    (If you don't turn off "hybrid sleep" in the Power settings, you're not really shutting it down unless you restart it).
  • Fedora user here, you don't realize how nice it is to just use sleep until you don't have it. My previous build would crash, probably within the hardware, when attempting to wake up, so I had to either leave it on 24/7 or wait for boot up every time I wanted to use it.

    Currently I set it to sleep after 1 hour of inactivity or I just press the big blue sleep button. As well, I have the scroll lock key set to sleep the display immediately. Granted the new build uses about 1/5 the power when idle (110w down t

  • Encrypted "home" disk, and yes, I shutdown when taking my work laptop offsite. If it should get stolen, I don't want to make anything easy for the crooks. Ditto for personal laptop when going on a trip (not so much for moving from coffee shop to home ;>).
    With SSD based systems, bootup isn't *that* much slower than "wake from sleep" with harddisks ... so I indulge my inner paranoia.

  • My personal MacBook Pro is put to sleep whenever I’m not using it. It gets rebooted when there are system updates. But the only time I power-cycle it is when I’m experiencing problems, which means perhaps three or four times a year.

    The Linux box under my desk at work stays on 24/7. Like the MBP, it gets rebooted as necessary for updates, but the power only goes off if I’m running into odd issues - once or twice a year, maybe?

    My work Mac is another MacBook Pro, which follows the same genera

  • For default operations my computer turns on during the night to install patches, backup, etc and then -rehibernates.
    So when I go on week long vacations and longer, I do shut it down instead of doing hibernation.
  • How else would I download torrents and let progress quest run.
  • By default, Windows 10 never truly shuts down. Its fast startup feature is a hybrid of hibernation and shut down. It also makes it a PITA if you ever have to recover data from a failed machine.

  • I run FreeBSD, not any of the listed OSes, but I don't se any reason to not comment.

    I hibernate my Windows system as I only use it on fairly rare occasion. A Windows VM pretty much removes any need to run it on are metal. It uses no power, but it is quickly available when I need it.

    My FreeBSD systems are busy at night running administrative tasks like backup of data files, reviewing system logs, checking for updates, etc. Of course, my server runs 24/7. My development system does get rebooted fairly fre

  • I shut my Windows gaming computer down for upgrades but I avoid shutting it down because of the amount of software that now wants to update itself on startup. I swear I have to wait 15 minutes for everything to start even if there are no updates be things are going out and checking.
  • Once I clear the browsers, and run bleachbit, several times, I shut it down. Once it's shutdown the hard disk is fully encrypted thanks to VeraCrypt, so I don't have anything to worry about and I can sleep easy.

  • ... I "upgraded" from Win7 to Win10 (no hardware changes at all though...)

    Now, my computer just gets progressively slower over 2-3 days until it's virtually unusable and then I have to reboot to get some performance back .

    Strangely, my PC also now intermittently refuses to register keyboard presses, even though I've disabled ALL the filter key, sticky key etc... features :(

    Never once had that problem with Win7 - and it's a mechanical keyboard so I *KNOW* the switch was depressed.

  • Suspend the computer to ram when I'm gone for the day. In the morning nearly instantly back where I left off.. and even the caches are still warm.

    Do the same with a Linux based HTPC via CEC. When the TV is shutoff it suspends to ram and wakes when the TV is switched back. TV takes longer to become ready than the HTPC does on resumption. Strange thing about this model even with WOL disabled suspend to ram uses LESS power than off.

    Only annoyance is that network connections, ssh terminals...etc get whacked

  • Personal PC is a Surface Pro 3, I keep it in sleep as much as possible. Battery is starting to show wear, so I may change that, but the Fingerprint Type Cover works, and startup is slick.

    Wife's PC is a Yoga Pro 900, it is in hibernate, PIN to log in. Trivial.

    Work PC, however, being higher risk, I shut down.

    ps - Got a Yoga Pro 900 or 910 with a QHD screen? I'm interested in buying another one. If solicitation breaks rules, -please ignore this...

  • Given my location, shutting down at night would interfere with the European hacker access, which seems unfair...

  • The home desktop stays on 24x7.

    The two notebooks, while at home, live on their respective chargers. The small Asus notebook is routinely powered off. The large Dell (I think) notebook usually sleeps unless I'm actively using it.

    Both of them are periodically restarted, just on principle.

    The Asus burns enough power even when supposedly powered all the way off that it will drain the battery NOTICEABLY after a week or so. Asus, when I called, claimed that this was a feature. My response (not verbalized) was

  • Work and Home Computers Stay On (Score:3)

    by eepok ( 545733 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @02:35PM (#59090758) Homepage

    I leave my workstation (at work) on because (1) I leave things open that I need to work on first thing in the morning and (2) my organization puts a massive amount of bloat in start-up and I don't like spending my first 3-4 minutes of the day closing MS One Drive, Slack, GoToMeeting, Zoom, Adobe Pre-Launch, and THEN load up Skype for Business, Outlook, and the documents I need to work on.

    I leave my computer on at home because I use it as my restricted Plex server and thus may want to use it at anytime.

  • I always suspend my Xubuntu laptop when I am not using it.

    Then once every 3 or so weeks, I reboot it.

  • MBP dual booting between the two rivals. I shut it down everyday because old habits die hard.

  • The organization I work for has mostly old PCs.
    They never shut down, and don't even have a sleep mode.

    My laptop sleeps when I don't use it. Why would I shut down my work environment, editors, open web pages etc. when I simply can close the lid and it falls asleep?

    My own computers I did not switch off since decades. But I on the other hand don't keep them awake and running.

  • No (Score:3)

    by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @02:54PM (#59090852)

    I may reboot the computers as updates require, but they're never shut down for extended periods (well, my desktops are that way, which are my main systems. I do power the laptop off and on as needed but I rarely use it).

    Not only do I occasionally need to remote into them, but they also are serving other duties such as serving files to various devices, and running various timed scripts.

    Electricity is cheap.

  • Yes and no (Score:3)

    by hackertourist ( 2202674 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @03:15PM (#59090930)

    In OS X, shutdown is painless because on the next boot, it will reopen every program and document (including unsaved changes) that was open at shutdown. Before this feature became available I'd hibernate it at night, and restart a few times a year.

    My Windows work machine I hibernate every evening. Shutting down and restarting is a pain in the ass because Windows doesn't remember state. There's a restart about once a week thanks to updates, scheduled for friday night to minimize impact on the work week.

  • Trick question (Score:3)

    by JThundley ( 631154 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @04:10PM (#59091216)

    This is a trick question. You CANNOT shut down Windows 10 or 8. When you click shut down, it actually hibernates your computer. Microsoft does this so your computer appears to boot faster. I've run across many people that were shutting down their computer to fix problems, or for their system's health. They're really just preserving the same bad state that Windows was in before. You need to reboot if you want to try to fix issues nowadays. Shutting down and then starting back up isn't the same thing anymore. Here's the first search hit I found on the topic: https://www.howtogeek.com/2623... [howtogeek.com]

    It's for this reason and many more that I don't run Windows 10. Still running Debian, Kubuntu, and Windows 7 for gaming.

  • Only for Kernel updates (Score:3)

    by nagora ( 177841 ) on Thursday August 15, 2019 @05:19PM (#59091494)

    The (Linux) computer works on things overnight anyway.

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