Restarting vs Shutting Down
Some 'hidden in plain sight' knowledge for you this time. I'm sure you have all been asked 'have you rebooted?' over the years, and it's no secret that restarting your PC or Mac, and even smartphone, once every now and then is a great idea. It does clear the memory, possibly push through updates and start afresh, and if you are having some sort of odd PC problem, a restart is a great place to start to see if the problem goes away.
What most people aren't aware of (and this particularly applies if you have been using PCs since the 'olden days') is that from Windows 10 onwards (2015-ish), Microsoft changed the way shutdown works.
The key info you need to know is that a SHUTDOWN, which you may be doing every day, doesn't achieve what it used to in Windows XP, 98, 2000, or earlier anymore, and is more akin to a kind of 'sleep' mode, where no power is consumed but it remembers applications open and processes running, and doesn't do the cleanout you think it probably is doing when you shut down each night and go home.
To achieve that, you now have to take the RESTART option. I'd suggest doing it every week or so, or when you feel something may be slow or not working as it should. It might take a few minutes so maybe pick lunchtime or the end of the day/week, but it could work wonders — you might have been shutting down every day for a looooong time, not even realising you are never getting the clean start to your workspace.
Have a good evening.
Cheers, Ashley Kirk