What happens during PC shutdown? - Easily explained

If you no longer need your PC, you should shut it down to save energy. In this practical tip, we explain what exactly happens when you shutdown.

Shut down PC: how it works

Windows has several ways to shutdown the system. We have summarized the simplest variants for you below:

• To shutdown your PC with Windows 7, all you have to do is click the Start menu and then click "Shutdown".
• There are two versions of Windows 8: Right-click the Start button and then click "Shutdown". Alternatively, open the Charms-Bar with [Windows] + [C] and click on the sign to switch off in the top right.
• Windows 10 can be switched off with a simple click on the button of the start menu, there via the "on / off" sign and "shutdown".
• If you are on the desktop, all Windows versions can be shut down by pressing the key combination [ALT] + [F4].

Shut down PC: This happens

As soon as you shutdown your PC with a mouse click or key combination, you start a chain of events, which you can find here:

• If you shutdown your PC, start an additional program "shutdown.exe" which controls the shutdown process.
• If you still have programs open, Windows will now ask whether you really want to shutdown your PC or whether the shutdown should be canceled.
• Windows then ends all programs and system services running in the background. The latter are small programs that Windows needs to work - for example, for the network connection or for displaying the desktop.
• Drives that are still integrated, such as USB sticks and external hard drives, are also logged off.
• Finally, all data that was stored in the working memory during startup and operation is deleted from it and the system is finally switched off.

Shutdown PC: This changes the quick start function

Windows offers a function for faster booting of the PC as standard, the so-called quick start function. However, this changes some of the shutdown process:

• If the quick start function is activated on your PC, not all programs and system functions running in the background are completely closed when you shutdown.
• The services that are in the operating system core are written to a file and then saved.
• When starting up, the computer no longer has to search for all services on the hard drive, but can load them directly from the file back into its core.
• However, you should only use the quick start function if you only have an operating system installed on your PC. Windows can be damaged with multiple operating systems.

In our next article we will show you how to shutdown your PC automatically after a certain time.