About 90% of the time I’d normally reboot Windows, just a quick log off then log back in is sufficient, and much quicker. When logging off, Windows closes all user running processes, even ones that appear to have hung or can’t be closed via Task Manager. When logging back in, Windows applies user profile settings and even machine wide updates for the user (such as new system environment variables).
Opportunities to log off/on instead of rebooting:
- If the computer is feeling sluggish
- Installing a new app that asks you to ‘reboot’
- Force close an app that’s locked up (that even Task Manager can’t close)
- Changing a system environment variable
I used to reboot every few days, now almost never do, instead using log off and back on. Even with a stellar solid state drive, just a quick log off and back in is faster. The Windows 7 driver level does a really good job of activating drivers without a reboot, so usually when an installer says you need to reboot, it’s actually trying to set something that gets activated when a user logs in, like a running a new start up app, service, or environment variable. If the computer is feeling ‘bloated’ from too many apps running, instead of rebooting, try a quick log out and in.
Just thought it worth sharing since those little minutes saved each day add up fast.
I’d have to say that I do even less. If I ever have the computer “feel slugish” it is more likely that a single application is misbehaving; restarting the app is better than logout. Also, fewer modern apps ask you to reboot the computer, and about half of those that do don’t really need it for the same reasons: kernel modules can be dynamically loaded.
The largest contrast is a case where Windows has a severe deficiency. On a unix based system, there is kill -9 (and the gui tools will use it too if a nicer kill doesn’t stop it). Why are there processes that the task manager is incapable of killing? This happens all the time and I’ve even seem them survive a logout leaving a reboot as the only recourse. In well over a decade, I’ve only seen this once on a unix based system due to the process having locked resources in hardware yet I’ve seen this countless times on Windows (both server and not) in just the past few months.
Disregarding M. Brooker’s response and directly to the author’s post, I have also thought of just logging off instead of rebooting my system. I’ve never actually done such because of habit, naturally, from having gone through several Windows OS through the past decade+.
I searched: “is logging off in Windows 7 the same as rebooting” and your article was listed first. Superb! Just because I’m anal when it comes to IS related stuff, especially my own personal computer, I think I will still reboot once every now and then “just to be sure.” But I am glad someone else, and probably well more than others, think the same. Thank you.