How to restart computer Windows 10

If you're like many people out there, you probably don't shut down or restart your computer as often as you should.

Table of Contents Show

Use the on-screen Start button
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Method 1: Reboot in a Normal Way
Method 2: Reboot using Ctrl+Alt+Del
Method 3: Restart from Command Prompt

But despite how easy it is to put your computer in Sleep mode once you're done with it for the day, it's essential to restart your computer at least once a week.

While it seems like a time-suck, restarting your computer helps it to run more smoothly. A restart can flush your computer's memory, shutting down or updating programs that, in turn, free up your computer's processor.

There are a few different ways to shut down or restart on a Windows computer, and some may not always work depending on how it's running. Below is a list of them, so whatever your situation, you have an option for getting your computer restarted.

Use the on-screen Start button

This is the most standard method for shutting down or restarting a Windows computer. Using the Start button, you can choose to restart your entire computer, effectively closing all your running apps, or shut your computer down and turn it back on. Selecting shut down will do all of the above outside of powering back up again. Here's how to do both.

1. Click the Start button in the lower-left corner of your screen. You can also press the Windows key on your keyboard to open the Start menu.

2. Choose the Power icon.

The Power icon is directly above the Start icon. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

3. When you click the power button, you will have the option to put your computer to sleep, restart it, or power it down.

You can select between putting your computer to sleep, restarting it, or shutting it down. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

This method only requires using the keyboard. It's likely your best option if your applications freeze or your computer's processing speeds take a sudden dip.

1. On your computer keyboard, hold down the control (Ctrl), alternate (Alt), and delete (Del) keys at the same time.

2. Release the keys and wait for a new menu or window to appear.

3. In the bottom right corner of the screen, click the Power icon.

The pop-up window will override whatever is running on your screen. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

4. Select between Shut Down and Restart.

You'll have to restart your computer manually if you select Shut Down, but Restart will automatically power on your device. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

This method is best for when your computer has frozen entirely. A forced shutdown is not always great for your system, but if even Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesn't work, this will.

Somewhere on your computer — depending on what kind you have — there is a power button. Laptop users can likely find it on the left or right side of their device. You may also find it in the upper left, center, or right-hand corners of your keyboard. On desktop computers, you'll likely find the power button on your vertical or horizontal tower.

When your shutdown and restart is complete, you may be able to open any applications you had open when your computer shut down and recover the files you didn't get a chance to save. Here's how to restart your Windows computer using the power button.

1. Locate your computer's Power button.

2. Press and hold that button until your computer shuts down.

3. Wait until you hear the computer's fans shut off, and your screen goes completely black.

4. Wait a few seconds before pressing and holding the power button to initiate your computer's normal startup.

Melanie Weir

Freelance author

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Restarting the computer can solve some software issues or apply the changes you have made on the computer. You need to restart your computer in the right way to avoid unnecessary computer issues. Besides the normal way, there are also two other methods: restarting the computer from Command Prompt and rebooting using Ctrl+Alt+Del. MiniTool will show you how to use these 3 methods in this post.

To fix some issues or execute some changes/tasks on your computer, you may need to reboot your computer. You’d better reboot your computer in a proper way so that it will not generate other computer issues.

Do you know how to reboot Windows 10 in the right way? Actually, there are 3 available methods. In the following contents, we will show you these three methods. You can select one method that you prefer to use.

Method 1: Reboot in a Normal Way

This is the conventional method. Most of you should know this way. Let’s review this method as follows:

Open Start on Windows 10.
Press the Power button and select Restart from the popup menu.

Then, your Windows 10 computer will go to restart.

Additionally, there is a second choice to perform a normal restart of Windows 10. Here are the steps:

Right-click on the Start button or press the Windows key and the X key at the same time to open the Power User Menu.
Go to Shut down or sign out.
Select Restart from the popup sub-menu of Shut down or sign out.

Then, your computer will start the reboot process. You need to wait patiently.

Method 2: Reboot using Ctrl+Alt+Del

You can also use the combination keys to restart your Windows 10 computer. You can even use this way in all versions of Windows computers.

Here is a step-by-step guide:

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del at the same time on your computer to open the shutdown dialog box.
Click on the Power button that is on the lower-right side of your computer screen.
Select Restart from the pop-out menu.

Note: The shutdown dialog box may be different in different versions of Windows. But, all of them will show you the option to reboot the computer.

Method 3: Restart from Command Prompt

The third method is to restart your Windows 10 computer from Command Prompt. To be specific, you can use the shutdown command to restart Windows 10.

You can follow these steps to restart your Windows 10 computer from Command Prompt:

Press the Windows key and the R key at the same time to open Run.
Type cmd into the search box and press Enter to access Command Prompt.
Type shutdown /r in Command Prompt and press Enter:

Here, the parameter /r indicates that it will reboot your computer but not just shut it down. /s is the command that will shut down your computer.

Your computer will begin to restart as you wish.

Those are the three methods to restart Windows 10 computers properly. Additionally, you may be interested in this related post: Reboot vs Reset vs Restart: Difference of Reboot, Restart, Reset.