Restart, shutdown, log out. When the work day is over and it’s time to go home, what do you do with your computer? If you shutdown your computer, you are actually preventing our Desktop Support Services (DSS) staff from helping to keep your computer up-to-date. There are several updates done overnight that rely on your computer being left on through logging out rather than being shutdown.
“What about restarting my computer?” Restarts are great! In fact, University Systems recommends that you restart your computer once a week to help refresh your operating system software. “But what about updates? I’ve heard I should restart my computer so that my updates can be installed.” A restart simply helps to refresh your operating software. All that is required for updates to be installed, is for your computer to be on.
By leaving your computer on at night, it is able to perform the following necessary tasks:
- Apply operating system updates. University Systems will schedule OS updates the day they are released to keep up-to-date.
- Allow for backup processes to run.
- Apply software updates.
- Run scheduled full system scans and apply necessary antivirus updates.
“Why do all of this at night?” Updates and backups are scheduled overnight in a maintenance window between 1:00 – 4:00am in order to prevent any impact to your computer’s performance during work hours, thus minimizing user impact. Our DSS staff want to keep you up-to-date without causing any inconvenience.
“I shutdown my computer because leaving it on wastes a lot of energy.” Did you know that all of UVic’s Technology Solutions Centre standard computers are Energy Star 4.0 rated? This means that they are meeting international recognized standards for energy efficiency set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
So, the next time you think you should shutdown, hold off and log out instead. After all, your computer probably has a busy night planned.
Ricardo Draper, Senior Desktop Support Analyst