Since the dawn of computer science, everyone has taught us that to turn off the computer, you did not have to press the physical power button before stopping Windows. This was true many years ago, but, maybe for some it is a surprise, today it is perfectly safe to close the PC with the power button, especially on computers with Windows 8 where the shutdown menu is more hidden and inconvenient.
Those who have used Windows 95 will remember that in old computers, to shut them down, you had to first click the button to close the session and wait for the message " Now you can shut down the computer " to appear.
The power button was not smart in those PCs and when it was pressed it immediately cut the power before the work was saved, like when the plug is suddenly disconnected or when the light goes out.
When a sudden black-out occurred, the computer was unable to shut itself cleanly, so the unsaved job was lost and, in some cases, the filesystem could also be damaged so that at the restart the scandisk was automatically executed, attempting to repair any damage caused by sudden shutdown.
Clicking on the Windows 95 " Shut Down " button caused all open programs to close and save data to disk.
By the time the message to shutdown the computer appeared, the PC had stopped working completely.
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When you press the power button on the computer case or on the front of the laptop, a signal is sent to the operating system that tells it to close everything, save and end.
The power button also allows you to forcibly cut power to the computer in case it is locked and you cannot turn it off normally.
To do this, however, you need to press the power button and hold it down for a few seconds.
As in old PCs, this can lead to data loss, file system corruption or other problems so much that on restarting you will be asked whether to start Windows in safe mode to solve any problems.
However, this procedure allows you to turn off and on laptops when the battery cannot be removed.
On stationary computers, if present, it is better to use the restart or reset button located next to the power button.
This is an emergency button to use when everything seems to be blocked and pressing it is equivalent to removing and putting back the plug to make a forced restart.
On very old computers, all of this may not work and the power button only serves to turn off the power completely.
The behavior of the computer's power button can also be configured to do different things, so as to have the computer turned off, to put it to sleep or to hibernate.
Windows and other operating systems allow you to customize what happens when you press the computer's power button.
Open the Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound and click where it says Change behavior of power buttons to enter the choice menu from the drop-down menu at the top and choose between hibernation, suspension, shutdown and nothing.
You can choose different options for the battery powered computer case.
On a laptop, you can also check what happens when you close the screen and make it go into hibernation.
READ ALSO: When to use suspend or hibernate your Windows computer?
