How do I restart Windows 10 completely?

[#1]

Question

How do I perform a complete restart under Windows 10?

---

Answer

Windows 10 no longer restarts completely if the Windows Quick Start is activated. When restarting, it loads the system including its settings and services from a previously created memory on the system drive in order to shorten the boot time.

However, this can lead to problems existing before the shutdown still being present after a restart.

It is therefore worth carrying out a complete restart, which can be achieved in different ways:

1. Click on Restart in the Start menu as usual, but hold down the Shift key (upper case key above CTRL).
2. Open a Run dialogue with the Windows + r key combination. Type shutdown -g -t 0 into this dialogue and confirm with Ok.
   

Windows restarts the computer completely in both cases.

---

The information in this article refers to:

• Devices with Windows 10

ChangeLog:

• 2024-07-11
  Initial version

Article in other languages:

• Deutsch

Review Date: 2025-01-11