Summary
- Keeping your PC on all the time didn't negatively impact performance or battery life as much as expected.
- Shut down your PC occasionally to prevent performance quirks and ensure software updates are properly installed.
- Shutting down your PC can protect your data from cyberattacks, especially if you have sensitive information on your device.
I’ve often been told that if you want your PC to run smoothly over time, you should shut it down now and then. But let’s be real — shutting a PC down and starting it back up every time is a hassle, so a lot of us, myself included, just leave it on all the time. I still used to shut my Windows 11 laptop down every once in a while, but a few months ago, I decided to keep it running nonstop for the sake of science. It didn’t go as badly as I expected, and I even saved some time in the process. However, I did run into a few issues along the way that almost made me shut it down.
I ran this test on a 2-year-old Windows 11 laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 series processor.
Why would you not shut down your PC?
It's convenient, and I am lazy
Call me lazy if you want, but not having to turn on my PC every time I need to work is just way more convenient. I’m often working on projects that take days to finish, so I keep a bunch of tabs open, my notes app handy, Photoshop running, and Spotify playing my favorite playlist. Now, imagine if I had to shut down my PC and reopen all these things each time — it’d take forever. Plus, I’d probably forget which Chrome tab had what info. I just close the lid or put it into sleep mode instead.
I also recently turned one of my Windows PCs into a streaming server with Plex, so I have to keep it on to access content. When a PC is off or in sleep mode, it stops running the server software and can’t stream any media. You might have your own reasons for keeping your PC on all the time. For example, if you use remote desktop or cloud backup software, you’ll need your computer available at all times. Leaving it on lets you access files, run tasks, or troubleshoot remotely, even when you’re not at your desk. And if you’re using your PC as part of a smart home hub, it needs to stay on for everything to stay connected. It can be set up to control lights, cameras, and other IoT devices, which works best when the PC is always accessible.
Plenty of people are using their PC on a constant basis, probably wondering just how unhealthy the "always on" state really is for their hardware.
How did it go?
Better than you'd expect
When I started this little experiment, I was expecting my PC to run into a ton of issues and random bugs, but I was wrong. My laptop running Windows 11 was surprisingly stable, even after not shutting it down for three months straight.
Sure, there were a few quirks here and there. Sometimes it would lag for a second or the fan would kick up out of nowhere, but overall, it held up much better than I expected. The only real issue I ran into was with Google Chrome. I usually keep a ton of tabs open, and after a while without shutting down the PC, Chrome would start to act up. It occasionally crashed, became sluggish, and generally struggled to keep up with all those open tabs.
I mostly just put my laptop to sleep by closing the lid and didn’t notice any significant battery drain. One evening, after a day of heavy use, I fully charged the laptop. Once it hit 100%, I unplugged it, put it to sleep, and left it overnight. When I checked it the next morning, the battery had barely dropped — only about 4%.
You might still want to shut down your PC sometimes
Trust me on this one
We’ve established that shutting down your PC (or not) doesn’t have much impact on performance or battery life, whether you’re closing the lid or putting it to sleep manually. But it’s still a good idea to shut it down — or at least restart it — every now and then.
For example, if you’re heading off on a long vacation, the amount of energy it uses during disuse might not be worth it compared to the minor hassle of starting it up again.
Another reason is related to software updates. Many Windows updates require a restart, so your computer has to shut down and turn back on anyway at that point. If you don’t do it when you’re in control of the timing, your PC might restart automatically, and you could lose any unsaved data when that happens.
Furthermore, shutting your computer down can protect your data by lowering the risk of cyberattacks—if it’s off, it can’t be accessed. This is especially helpful if you have sensitive info on your device, whether it’s personal, client-related, or otherwise.
Keep your PC running smoothly
Whether you decide to shut down your PC regularly or not is totally up to you. Either way, you’re unlikely to see a big difference in performance as long as you restart or shut it down now and then. But if your PC still isn’t working as expected even after a restart, there could be some other underlying issues. Check out these 10 things that might be slowing down your PC (and how to fix them).
