How to Reboot your Computer
There are many reasons why you would want to know how to reboot your computer properly, but normally, users need to reboot their system when there is an issue. A slow, stalling system or being unable to open or close programs can sometimes be remedied by a simple reboot to restore the system to a known state before these issues occurred.
It is important to reboot your computer properly. Improper shutdowns can lead to even further issues with your personal computer, including, but not limited to data loss and greater system instability. The following information should help you to be able to learn how to reboot your computer in a safe, effective manner.
Before you reboot
You want to turn off all peripherals attached to your system that have their own dedicated source of power. This includes external hard drives, speakers, printers, and the like. Occasionally these peripherals can be the cause of the problem, so you don’t want to reboot your computer when these are active.
If you can, you will also want to save any work. Rebooting your system means shutting it down, and anything you are doing will be lost if it has not been saved. While this is not possible in all circumstances, you should be sure to take this step every time if you can.
Reboot methods
If you want to know how to reboot your computer, know that there are several methods to try, and some of these are more appropriate at certain situations than others. The first method you should always try is to go to the “Start Menu” located on the lower left hand corner of your PC’s desktop display. While this next step will vary for each different version of Windows, you will find some options for powering down your computer; you should select restart.
If you are unable to shut your computer down in this manner, you should next try pressing “Control” simultaneously with “ALT” and “Delete.” Doing this should bring up an option to restart your computer, and doing this several times could trigger the reboot.
Finally, if this doesn’t work and you are still wondering how to reboot your computer, you will need to manually turn it off and back on again. To do this, you simply press and hold the power button on the front of your desktop system or on your laptop; you can release the button once the computer has turned off. Wait a few moments and then press the button again to restart the computer.
After you reboot
If you had to reboot using any method other than using the power options in the start menu, you most likely will have a different restart process than you would otherwise. Pay close attention to this, as a big part of how to reboot your computer is handling the restart properly. You should be given an option for starting your system in safe mode; consider selecting that option so that you can start figuring out what was causing any issue that caused you to reboot your computer while keeping it safe from further problems.
