Microsoft made this decision because people experiencing problems often reboot their computers to fix them, so it makes some sense.

RELATED: Why Does Rebooting a Computer Fix So Many Problems? Windows restarts your computer, but it performs a full shut down first and discards the state of the kernel while doing so. To do this, just click the “Restart” option in the menu instead of the “Shut Down” option. If you’re troubleshooting system problems, you’ll want to perform a full shut down of the kernel to ensure Windows reinitializes things from scratch. How to Perform a Full Shut Down and Restart Windows saves the current state and restores it instead of reinitializing everything. But it means that if a hardware driver in your kernel is stuck in a weird state, shutting down your PC and then booting it back up again won’t fix the problem. This kernel hibernation process all happens automatically when you click “Shut Down,” and people will rarely notice the difference. The next time you boot your PC, Windows restores the kernel and starts up the rest of the system. With Fast Startup enabled, Windows 10 discards all your open programs and files (as it would during a traditional shutdown), but saves the state of the Windows kernel to disk (as it would during hibernation). When you hibernate, Windows saves the entire system state, including all your open programs and files, to disk so you can quickly resume from where you left off.įast Startup mixes the traditional shutdown process with hibernation. In the traditional shutdown process, Windows fully shuts down everything, discards the running system state, and starts up from scratch the next time the PC boots. RELATED: The Pros and Cons of Windows 10's 'Fast Startup' Mode

This feature was introduced in Windows 8, and has also been called Fast Boot and Hybrid Boot or Hybrid Shutdown. This weirdness is all thanks to Windows 10’s “Fast Startup” feature, which is enabled by default. Why Doesn’t the “Shut Down” Option Fully Shut Down?

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