Restart vs Shut Down — what’s the difference?
Windows 11’s “Shut down” isn’t a true shutdown. Restart is what actually clears the state.
- Win+X → Shut down or sign out → Shut down: Windows does a “fast startup” — it saves part of the kernel to disk so next boot is faster. State is not fully cleared.
- Win+X → Shut down or sign out → Restart: does fully clear state. Use this when something is broken.
- Rule of thumb: if something is weird, click Restart, not Shut down.
- Restart at least once a week even if nothing is broken — lets pending Windows Updates install cleanly.
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