Should I Shut Down My PC?

Should I turn off my PC when I'm done using it for the day, or leave it on overnight?

David Cossio, El Paso, Texas

Some people argue that leaving a computer on is bad for it. Others take exactly the opposite view, saying it's bad to turn it off. I find neither argument convincing.

One fact is absolutely certain: Turning off your PC saves electricity--and money.

But then again, so does hibernation, which is faster. When you set a computer to hibernate, Windows copies everything in RAM to the hard drive and then shuts down the hardware. When you turn the PC back on, Windows restores your system to the state it was in when you started hibernation. From the hardware's point of view, the computer has been off, but to Windows, you never left. See the November 2002 Answer Line for instructions on setting up your computer to hibernate.

But there are good reasons why you may want to turn your computer off instead, especially if you're using Windows 98 or Me. With these versions of Windows, the longer you go between reboots, the more unstable the environment becomes. If you only hibernate, Windows never actually closes down and restarts, and therefore it becomes more prone to crashes. This isn't a problem with Windows 2000 and XP, however.

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