Booting and rebooting your computerJoyce Lund wrote
....a little hint I found.......Joyce
Warm Boot
No, this isn't what happens when you rest your feet by the fire. Whenever you reboot your computer by going through a menu, or otherwise asking it to restart via software, that is known as a warm boot. In that case, the operating system has the opportunity to shut down cleanly, leaving your files in a consistent state.
On the other hand, if you restart your computer by physically turning the power on and off (or if your electric company and Mother Nature do it for you), that is known as a cold boot (acutally, emergency shutdown - KAT). Most operating systems will take longer to do a cold boot, as they run more detailed checks on the contents of the disk, and try to repair any problems that are found.
Keith adds....
A cold boot can be accomplished correctly. If you go to Start, Shutdown, the computer will close all files and programs correctly and with the newer computers turn off the electricity. You now have to press the on switch or button to start the computer. This is a cold boot. The description below was for an emergency shutdown when the computer locks. This is the one that should be avoided when possible, but as we all know, its not always possible with the operating system that Unkl Bill Gates so nicely developed for us. <G>. The Ctl, Alt, Del is also a form of the soft boot if you do it twice but is an emergency version and can cause the startup scandisk which again is to be avoided. If you select the shut down from the bottom of the Ctl/Alt/Del window, then you will usually (not always) go through the correct shutdown.