The process of starting or restarting a computer is called booting. When turning on a computer that has been powered off completely, you are performing a cold boot. A warm boot, by contrast, is the process of using the operating system to restart a computer. A warm boot properly closes any running processes and programs; however, it does not save any unsaved work. Thus, always remember to save your work before rebooting (restarting) a computer.
Warm Boot versus Cold Boot
With Windows, you can perform a warm boot by clicking the Start button on the taskbar, clicking the arrow next to the Shut down button on the Start menu, and then clicking Restart.
When you install new software or update existing software, often an on-screen prompt instructs you to restart the computer. In this case, a warm boot is appropriate. If the computer stops responding, try pressing and holding down the power button to turn off the computer. A standard power button is shown in xx.
Figure : Power Button
As a last resort, remove power from the computer and then restart the computer. On newer computers, pressing the power button momentarily is the same as a warm boot, whereas pressing and holding the power button does not properly close running processes and programs.
The Boot Process
Each time you boot a computer, the kernel and other frequently used operating system instructions are loaded, or copied, from storage into the computer’s memory (RAM). The kernel is the core of an operating system that manages memory and devices, maintains the computer’s clock, starts programs, and assigns the computer’s resources, such as devices, programs, data, and information. The kernel is memory resident, which means it remains in memory while the computer is running. Other parts of the operating system are nonresident, that is, these instructions remain on a storage medium until they are needed. The boot process is similar for large and small computers. The steps