by Krystofer Gardner
As surprising as it may sound, your company issued computer is meant to restart from time to time, rather than just going to sleep when it is not in use. Across the company there has been an increasing number of employees who have not restarted their computer for significant periods of time. It is critical for your computer to restart on a regular basis.
Restarting your computer does two things:
- Allows critical updates to finish installing
- Clears RAM for improved performance
Here is a quick rundown of a few questions you may have.
When should I restart my computer?
If there is ever a pending update, you must restart your computer to finish the install. You can tell if there is a pending update if you see this icon at the bottom of your screen.
In addition, it is a good general practice to restart at least once a week to clear your RAM for improved computer performance. The IT department has seen other hardware failures from computers whose RAM usage has been too high for a prolonged period of time.
Is there anything special I need to know when restarting?
If you are restarting due to a pending update, always make sure that your computer has more than 50% battery capacity left, or it is plugged in. If you initiate a restart for an update, and your computer dies in the process, the computer will not be able to turn back on. This will require the help of IT to get your computer back up and working, with the potential that the computer will have to be factory reset.
In summary, if you can’t remember the last time you restarted your computer, right now is the time to restart your computer.
