Reboot

Reboot is nothing but restarting a computer and reloading the OS. Rebooting is sometimes necessary in case of following scenarios:

• After installing a new software
• Installing operating system updates
• To recover from an error
• To re-initialize drivers or hardware devices.

If your PC is running on Windows OS, then you can reboot it by hitting "turn off computer" from the start menu and click on "restart" option from the window that pops up. Another way is through Ctrl-Alt-Delete key combination. In case of Mac devices, you can reboot by selecting the "Restart" option from the Special menu.

Types of reboot

• Hard Reboot or Cold Reboot: In this case, power will be physically shut off and then it’s turned on.
• Warm Reboot or Soft Reboot: Warm reboot or soft reboot means the system restarts without loss of power.

Note: In case, if the computer is frozen then users should perform hard reboot to prevent damage to the hardware components.

How to perform hard rebooting?

To perform a hard reboot, you need to press and hold down the power button of your PC, after 5-10 seconds, the computer turns off. Once the computer is off, wait a few seconds and then turn the computer will turn on.

How to restart?

You can press Ctrl + Alt + Del to reboot the computer or start the process of rebooting or restarting the computer.

Note: The main difference between restart and reboot is - restart in Windows refers to an operating system which closes all applications before a soft reboot.