Do I have to turn off computer over night ?

DKean wrote:
I have a Dell lap top and have been turning it off every night. Is this necessary. It takes a long time to boot up in the morning. I have win 8.1

It doesn't need to be turned off. But if you do want to shut it down you can set it to hibernate instead of a complete shut down. That will allow it to startup much faster than a complete restart. Hibernate allows the computer to turn completely off, but saves the memory state, open apps, etc., to the hard drive so when you turn it back on it is right where you left off.



Michael

All it needs is a closed lid at night.
I do re-boot mine every few days.

If the power saver settings are configured to let the unit go into sleep mode, there is no need to power down every night. You just want to be sure the HD is powering to sleep so it isn't spinning 24/7.

A restart every week or two will clear out any programs running that might slow things down, as well as install any new updates.

It's better to shut it down overnight to allow the updates to be installed. If you leave it on all the time you'll notice that it will start to slow down.