Do bedbugs bother you? Is your computer slow? Perhaps the easiest solution is to restart it. Contrary to popular belief, sleeping position is not necessarily your best friend.
A few years ago, everyone shut down their PC when they finished using it. Meanwhile, our devices have improved a lot. With ever-better low-power chips, faster components, and superior software optimization, it’s almost possible to never shut down your computer. We often just close our laptop lid or let our landline switch to standby mode on its own, until we need to wake them up to use them. The time savings are, of course, enormous. The long minutes needed to get started no longer exist.
However, extended standby can cause problems. What inspired the writing of this article was the use of a Mac that, despite its power, could not properly manage an external monitor and display funny error messages (for example, it refused to update, arguing that the proposed update on the screen was not selected). Going to System Information, we realized that it had been running for…54 days and 4 hours. On reboot, we restored its optimal behavior.
Once a week for more calm?
We must not forget that behind the graphical interfaces of our computers (icons, windows, animations, etc.) they actually hide many lines of code. The longer your computer lasts, the more likely errors will multiply. If they rarely bother using it, they can, in some specific cases, prevent it from doing simple tasks. You can sometimes restart the process in question (the “killall Dock” command on a Mac is usually enough to get the Desktop Manager back to working, which often crashes) but over time, problems will almost always end up solving them. accumulate. On Windows, Ctrl + Alt + Delete has often been the subject of anxiety attacks.
We often laugh at the phrase Have you thought about unplugging and reconnecting your computer?But the truth is, that’s very fair. By restarting your computer, say once a week, all the processes needed to get it working properly are back on track. You may have lost a document because of freeze From an app, this issue will most likely not occur if it has been open for less time. Your computer also takes the opportunity to empty its RAM, which can make it faster (especially if you’re used to leaving many Chrome tabs nearby).
How about turning it off every night? No, but it wouldn’t change much. Modern computers are designed to consume very little power while in sleep mode. Frequent restart mainly aimed at “to clean” your seat. Turning it off once a week, on Friday evening for example, might be more appropriate.
And my smartphone?
A smartphone in itself is a small computer. A restart can only help him. If certain issues occur in the interface, you can no longer connect to headphones or calls are no longer going on, then it is very likely that restarting will be the solution to your problems.
However, the operating systems of our smartphones are often newer than those of our computers, which means that they are sometimes better optimized. The issues are less common on iOS and Android than on macOS and Windows, although they do exist. A frequent restart is not necessarily necessary, but feel free to try one once your smartphone is behaving strangely.
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