Properly Shutting Down a Macintosh Computer, and Shutting Down a Windows 8 Computer
I have come across a fair number of people that hold down the power button on their computer to shut it down. When I ask people why they do it that way, I’ve been told everything from, ” I always do it this way,” to “The tech support guy at so and so told me to do it this way.” This is not a good way to shut down a computer at all. If someone has taught you this as the proper way to turn it off, please read this article and learn how to do it the right way.
In case of a system freeze, and when all else fails you can hold down the power button to force shut down your PC, or Macintosh computer. I do not recommend doing this as a normal means of shutting down your computer. Doing it this way will corrupt your operating system especially when it is done frequently.
When people are unfamiliar with an operating system, because of changes from a previous version, or are not familiar with a computer at all there may be a temptation to just push the power button, because that’s how you turned it on to begin with, so whats wrong with turning it off the same way?
The operating system, Windows, Mac OSX, and others have a shut down function listed in a menu for you to use. This is how you should always shut down your computer. I will explain how to shut down Macintosh computers, and how to do it for people using Windows 8. Many people are confused by the changes that were made from windows 7 and previous editions of Windows to Windows 8, even some Windows veterans.
Before you ever hold down the power button to shut down any computer there are steps you can try first to resolve system freezes, program freezes and crashes on Windows and Macintosh computers.
Such as:
• If your computer freezes you can bring up the task manager in Windows (2000 through Windows 8) by holding down three keys simultaneously on your keyboard. These keys are: ctrl + alt + del. This brings up the task manager Windows which will allow you to force quit applications in Windows.
• On a Mac you hold down the following 3 keys: option + command ( or APPLE key on older Mac’s) +esc. this will bring up a window that will allow you to force quit applications on a Mac.
* If this doesn’t work on either system then your computer is “locked up” now hold down the power button until the computer completely powers off. ( This is also a sign that something may seriously be wrong with your computer, and the Operating System, may be seriously corrupted.)
If it is not your computer, pressing the power key may just put the computer to sleep as someone may have set it up to do this. You will know if it is asleep usually by a flashing, or pulsing power LED light somewhere by the power button, or on the front of the computer. Don’t unplug the computer until you know it’s off. IF IT’S ASLEEP IT’S NOT OFF!!!! This means that your computer is still running. Pulling the power cord when a computer is asleep may damage, and corrupt the data on your computer. On almost every computer if you hold the power key down for 5- 10 second it will fully power off, at least it should.
If all of the above steps do not work, and your computer remains locked up, your last resort is to pull the power cord from the socket. You probably should at this point take your computer in for service.
Shutting down a computer the right way:
Windows 8
• From your desktop move your mouse to the lower left hand corner of your screen to bring up the start menu, and left click on the box that appears.
• This will take you to the “start menu”. From here move your mouse to the upper right hand corner of the start menu where you see your “User name” and left click it. You will now see a pop up window option. Select ” sign out”.
• This will take you to a splash screen picture that is usually the space needle in Seattle (by default).
• Click anywhere on the image to go to the “Log on screen”. Here you will see a list of User accounts or one single username depending on how many people have accounts on your computer. This is also the screen you use to “shut down” or “restart” your Windows 8 Computer.
• On the Logon screen move your mouse to the lower right corner and click on the “on/ off symbol” ( it looks like an 0 with an I in the middle of it)
• Select “restart” or “shut down” from here to safely and properly shut down your Windows 8 Computer.
Macintosh OSX (Mac OSX 10.x.x)
• Move your mouse to the APPLE symbol at the upper left hand corner of the desktop menu.
• Click on the APPLE symbol, and select “shut down” or “restart” from the drop down menu.
• You should get a pop up window saying, “Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now?” click continue to shut it down, or it will do it in 1 minute automatically.
If either of these steps do not work to shut down your computer you may have a problem with the operating system on your Macintosh or Windows PC, or worse. Go back and follow the previous steps on force quitting applications before you decide to hold the power button down to shut off your computer. If the problem persists after a restart frequently, or every time, you need to service your computer to see whats wrong with it.
