Computer frozen? Outlook not responding? Wi-Fi dropped and your printer’s gone AWOL again? Before you call the help desk in a panic, try the oldest trick in IT: turning it off and on again, then giving it a bit of a clear-out. Between a restart, clearing your cache, and shutting down the twenty tabs you forgot about, you can fix a huge number of everyday computer problems yourself in under five minutes.
When should you restart?
A restart isn’t a cure-all, but it clears out a surprising number of everyday glitches. Here’s when it’s worth trying first, which can be done in minutes:
- Your device is running hot or the fans are loud. Usually too much running in the background, or a cooling issue building up over time.
- A software or Windows update is waiting to install. Most updates need a restart to actually apply, and Windows 11 will keep nudging you until you give it one.
- Everything’s just slow. Too many apps, browser tabs, and background processes fighting for memory is one of the most common causes of a sluggish machine.
- Outlook, Teams, or another Microsoft 365 app has locked up. A quick restart clears whatever got stuck and lets it start fresh.
- You can’t connect to the printer, Wi-Fi, or a shared drive. Nine times out of ten this is a dropped connection rather than a broken printer.
- A VPN or remote desktop session won’t behave. Common if you’re working across office and home networks, and a restart resets the connection properly.
How does a restart actually help?
A restart clears your RAM, the short-term memory your computer uses to run everything that’s currently open. Over time, background processes, browser tabs, and half-closed apps quietly eat into it, and a restart flushes all of that out in one go. It also resets your network connection, which is why it fixes so many Wi-Fi, VPN, and printer issues, and it gives Windows a clean point to apply any updates that have been waiting in the background.
How to restart your devices
A restart is different to putting your device to sleep or shutting it down completely. It powers everything off safely and back on again, and it’ll usually reopen your browser tabs so you don’t lose your place. Always save your work first.
Windows
- Click the Start button (the Windows icon on the taskbar).
- Select the power icon, then choose Restart.
- Leave it to do its thing. It’ll come back on by itself.
If your PC is properly frozen and won’t respond to any of that, hold the power button for about 10 seconds to force a shutdown, wait a moment, then switch it back on. Treat this as a last resort as you may lose unsaved work.
Mac
- Save what you’re working on and close your apps.
- Click the Apple icon in the top left corner.
- Select Restart.
Only use the physical power button if macOS has stopped responding entirely.
Laptops, phones and tablets
The same logic applies. Modern laptops rarely need more than a normal restart, and a quick reboot of your phone once a week helps clear background clutter too, especially if apps have started lagging or your battery’s draining faster than usual.
Clear your cache and browsing history
If your browser’s the one slowing you down (pages taking forever to load, buttons not responding, sites logging you out for no reason) a restart alone might not fix it. Your browser stores a growing pile of cached files, cookies, and site data every time you go online, and that pile can eventually start working against you rather than for you.
| Platform | How to clear your cache |
| Chrome, Edge, or Firefox on Windows | Press Ctrl + Shift + Delete to open the clear browsing data menu. Choose a time range (last 24 hours for a quick fix, or “all time” if it’s been sluggish a while). Tick cached images and files and cookies and other site data, then clear. |
| Chrome, Edge, or Firefox on Mac | Press Cmd + Shift + Delete (Chrome and Edge) or open Settings > Privacy in Firefox. Pick a time range, tick cache and cookies, then clear. |
| Safari on Mac | Go to Safari > Settings > Advanced and tick Show features for web developers, or simply go to History > Clear History. Choose a time range and confirm. |
| Chrome or Edge on phone or tablet | Open the browser menu (usually three dots), then Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data. Select cached images/files and cookies, then clear. |
Close down your tabs
It’s easy to end up with dozens of tabs open across two or three windows without noticing, and every one of them is quietly using memory in the background, even the ones you’re not looking at. If your computer’s crawling and a restart hasn’t fully solved it, take a look at how many tabs and apps you’ve actually got open.
A simple habit worth building: bookmark anything you want to come back to, then close the rest rather than leaving it open “just in case.” Your computer will thank you, and so will your next restart.
When a restart isn’t enough
If you’re restarting the same machine every day just to keep it usable, that’s not a fix, it’s a symptom. Recurring freezes, repeated Outlook crashes, or a printer connection that keeps dropping usually point to something underneath: an ageing device, a failing driver, a network issue, or in some cases a sign your system needs a closer look from a security standpoint.
That’s where it’s worth having an IT partner who can spot the pattern rather than treating each restart as a one-off. Get in touch and our team can take a proper look at what’s going on, whether it’s ageing hardware for our Managed Technology Services team to sort, a network problem, or something worth flagging to our Security Operations Centre.
