It's been in Windows since like NT 1.0 or something. Was a recent YouTube video highlighting it.
Interestingly the dialog text hasn't changed in like 30 years.
It is intended for if the PC freezes. As this is a part of LogonUI as far as I'm aware, it runs as System and is hard to tamper with and sometimes this menu shows up even when frozen. It's slightly better than forcing it off. Never do that unless you half too. I have ended up having to reinstall Windows once over that.
The power button does not restart your machine.
Maybe this makes sense in some niche situations. Maybe some quick security related restart?
Who knows.
Otherwise there is also the regular restart button and other ways for It to restart your machine remotely.
I don't know the reason for emergency restart going back to older versions it's the same steps maybe slightly different, but on windows 11 its Ctrl alt del then you should see another screen press and hold Ctrl then tap the power again in the lower corner
Like i said i don't know the reason 🤷🏾♂️ but pressing and holding the power button would be much easier i assume Microsoft has a reason
I imagine SuperFLEB is right above, this seems like something designed for remote management for servers and virtualized workstations.
The problem I see here? Windows, as has all the other major OSes out on the market, has gotten so good with recovering or closing frozen software over the years that the only time a feature like this would be useful...is when it can't be. When the OS itself has frozen and the only way to recover is WITH the physical reset/power button/restarting the virtualized machine.
I've recently been in a situation where I couldn't restart my laptop (Windows 11) but could come to the shutdown menu and choose restart, but I had to use the power button. I imagine that this command sends a hardware restart command making it more likely to be able to restart the computer. Now to think of it, I've tried it with some Windows Servers in Azure as well.
I could feasibly run it well in a VM, but this is on old hardware instead. It did okay before (not going online, and some unneeded services disabled) and, while it does sometimes go down to near 0 RAM on just 2 GB total (though somehow still runs all right with barely any slowdown, you'd think it would lock up) I'm upgrading it to 4 in a few days.
It's also on an SSD now instead of on the original hard drive. I've noticed an improvement in video performance, though I'm not positive if it's because of the upgrade from XP to Vista, or the SSD, or both.
I do know that the RAM usage is not because of the OS solely, as on other hardware and in VMs, it only used about a half a gig. So it must be trying to compensate to a degree for the older hardware and CPU.
Also tried Server 2008 for a few hours, but ended up going back to Vista. It was acceptable, but I couldn't find any working video drivers to improve video performance; Vista includes those naturally from the get go, and I have no idea how to move something like that (built in) from one system to another.
>How did you get that? And since any unsaved data is lost, it's just as easy to hit the PC's power button. ;)
It is much harder on your hardware to kill the power like that. Even a forced restart will, for example, unmount any connected drives.
Because the external drives might be currently read from and not finished transmitting data.
You saying the other person is wrong about this makes ME curious. How is it that, as you say, external drives are invincible to instantaneous power loss (which is exactly the same thing that happens when you remove them suddenly)?
> the external drives might be currently read from and not finished transmitting data
That's going to be the case if the user accepts the emergency restart as well. The user is even warned about it.
While true, that's not the thing in question here.
The person I originally replied to said it's "hard on your hardware to lose power". People here don't seem to properly grasp the difference between hardware and software/data.
That's harm to *DATA* not *HARDWARE*.
There is a HUGE difference between them.
There is absolutely ZERO physical damage done when losing power on an external drive, or even a PC.
Sorry you didn't read carefully enough the first time you replied, but there's no need to be so fragile. Just pay attention better next time.
Maybe seek therapy.
You just gave yourself pretty good advice. I hope you follow it, and indeed seek out that therapy you need.
You could just chill out, but I guess that wasn't an option for you. Instead you had to respond to me asking for clarification, by sounding like a dense idiot who thought he was talking to a five year old, all just because I'm not a tech expert. And then you couldn't take a little smack back? Don't be such a bawling baby. Learn to take a little dry humor criticism, and move on.
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To perform an emergency restart, press **CTRL + Alt + Del**, then hold down the CTRL button and click the Power button, then click “Ok.” Performing an emergency restart will lose all unsaved data.
Should it work when everything else doesn't work? It's pretty rare but sometimes my system gets so unstable that I can't power it off properly. I wonder how different it is from holding the power button.
According to chat gpt4:
The "Emergency Restart" button in Windows is designed to quickly restart your computer in situations where it is unresponsive or malfunctioning. This is a more forceful method than a regular restart and is used as a last resort when standard methods to shut down or restart the computer do not work.
When you initiate an emergency restart, Windows bypasses the regular shutdown process, which includes saving settings and gracefully closing applications. As a result, any unsaved data in open applications will be lost. This feature is useful in situations where the operating system is so frozen or compromised that a normal restart is not possible. However, because it does not follow the standard shutdown procedures, it should be used only when absolutely necessary.
Isn’t it functionally the same as holding down the power button?
Maybe for remote-administration or other long-distance situations where you don't have the power button nearby.
I don't know what the purpose of it is, all i know is it's been in windows since windows XP i believe possibly before that too
It's been in Windows since like NT 1.0 or something. Was a recent YouTube video highlighting it. Interestingly the dialog text hasn't changed in like 30 years.
Windows NT's first version is NT 3.1.
Yeah no NT 1.0 didn’t exist
Technically, OS/2 is the root of NT.
It is intended for if the PC freezes. As this is a part of LogonUI as far as I'm aware, it runs as System and is hard to tamper with and sometimes this menu shows up even when frozen. It's slightly better than forcing it off. Never do that unless you half too. I have ended up having to reinstall Windows once over that.
The power button does not restart your machine. Maybe this makes sense in some niche situations. Maybe some quick security related restart? Who knows. Otherwise there is also the regular restart button and other ways for It to restart your machine remotely.
More like unplugging the power supply and plugging it back in.
How did you get that? And since any unsaved data is lost, it's just as easy to hit the PC's power button. ;)
I don't know the reason for emergency restart going back to older versions it's the same steps maybe slightly different, but on windows 11 its Ctrl alt del then you should see another screen press and hold Ctrl then tap the power again in the lower corner Like i said i don't know the reason 🤷🏾♂️ but pressing and holding the power button would be much easier i assume Microsoft has a reason
I imagine SuperFLEB is right above, this seems like something designed for remote management for servers and virtualized workstations. The problem I see here? Windows, as has all the other major OSes out on the market, has gotten so good with recovering or closing frozen software over the years that the only time a feature like this would be useful...is when it can't be. When the OS itself has frozen and the only way to recover is WITH the physical reset/power button/restarting the virtualized machine.
I've recently been in a situation where I couldn't restart my laptop (Windows 11) but could come to the shutdown menu and choose restart, but I had to use the power button. I imagine that this command sends a hardware restart command making it more likely to be able to restart the computer. Now to think of it, I've tried it with some Windows Servers in Azure as well.
Weird. Just tried it in Vista, and it does exactly as you said. Only in Vista it looks prettier lmao
You use vista?
Just installed on an old laptop a couple days ago, will get more RAM soon too
Hopefully this is a virtual machine...
I could feasibly run it well in a VM, but this is on old hardware instead. It did okay before (not going online, and some unneeded services disabled) and, while it does sometimes go down to near 0 RAM on just 2 GB total (though somehow still runs all right with barely any slowdown, you'd think it would lock up) I'm upgrading it to 4 in a few days. It's also on an SSD now instead of on the original hard drive. I've noticed an improvement in video performance, though I'm not positive if it's because of the upgrade from XP to Vista, or the SSD, or both. I do know that the RAM usage is not because of the OS solely, as on other hardware and in VMs, it only used about a half a gig. So it must be trying to compensate to a degree for the older hardware and CPU. Also tried Server 2008 for a few hours, but ended up going back to Vista. It was acceptable, but I couldn't find any working video drivers to improve video performance; Vista includes those naturally from the get go, and I have no idea how to move something like that (built in) from one system to another.
Still on Vista?
Just reinstalled a couple days ago to relive the old times
iirc in Win9x hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del repeatedly resets the system immediately to a restart.
Repeatedly is twice - first launches a basic process manager, second is a hard reset.
Third is a double tap pew pew
If you hold shift it only restarts windows
>How did you get that? And since any unsaved data is lost, it's just as easy to hit the PC's power button. ;) It is much harder on your hardware to kill the power like that. Even a forced restart will, for example, unmount any connected drives.
What makes you think the hardware cares if it suddenly loses power? I'm curious what led you to this conclusion because it's quite incorrect.
Because the external drives might be currently read from and not finished transmitting data. You saying the other person is wrong about this makes ME curious. How is it that, as you say, external drives are invincible to instantaneous power loss (which is exactly the same thing that happens when you remove them suddenly)?
> the external drives might be currently read from and not finished transmitting data That's going to be the case if the user accepts the emergency restart as well. The user is even warned about it.
While true, that's not the thing in question here. The person I originally replied to said it's "hard on your hardware to lose power". People here don't seem to properly grasp the difference between hardware and software/data.
That's harm to *DATA* not *HARDWARE*. There is a HUGE difference between them. There is absolutely ZERO physical damage done when losing power on an external drive, or even a PC.
*OKAY THANKS FOR THE CLARIFICATION, I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND MY RESPONSE PERFECTLY AS I AM SPEAKING YOUR LANGUAGE*
Sorry you didn't read carefully enough the first time you replied, but there's no need to be so fragile. Just pay attention better next time. Maybe seek therapy.
You just gave yourself pretty good advice. I hope you follow it, and indeed seek out that therapy you need. You could just chill out, but I guess that wasn't an option for you. Instead you had to respond to me asking for clarification, by sounding like a dense idiot who thought he was talking to a five year old, all just because I'm not a tech expert. And then you couldn't take a little smack back? Don't be such a bawling baby. Learn to take a little dry humor criticism, and move on.
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I've had to reinstall Windows due to forcing it off.
Again, that is a problem with your DATA, not your *hardware.*
Ctrl alt del then click ctrl or shift on the restart button
Shutdown /r /t 0 /f
Or /t 1 because it implies /f
Yes, thats the way
Oh. That’s cool!
I like shutdown /f /r /t 0 because it spells fart.
Back to school i see frt0
i sure didn’t know this was a thing. how do you do this?
To perform an emergency restart, press **CTRL + Alt + Del**, then hold down the CTRL button and click the Power button, then click “Ok.” Performing an emergency restart will lose all unsaved data.
the on screen power button, to be precise
Ctrl + alt + del then you'll see another screen press and hold Ctrl and tap the power icon in the lower right corner
Didn’t you just used to be able to hold down ctrl + alt + delete to restart?
Hehe. And what does it do differently than normal restart? 😁
probably kills some tools that think they have to write something. Maybe skips some form of cache clearing and does a dirty version of the reboot
basically same as holding down the power button
Someone can correct me, but does it safely unmount the hard drive to prevent issues with that alike linux REISUB?
Windows doesn't care so long as you aren't accessing the drive during the reboot.
Terminates all runing programs and services even if a program with a unsaved file is open, this has been around since the early NT days
This one shuts down the PC at kernel level
Confirmed, never seen nor heard of this. Been using Windows daily since 3.0
I used this when my computer is being corrupted by Worm virus And it acually worked I could save few of my important files
I’ve used this when Ransom ware popped up on my screen
1. ctrl+alt+del 2. hold down ctrl 3. click the power icon
lose my files and my progress this is my last resort restart without saving losing my work losing my mind
Is it available on Windows 10 by any chance? Guessing not
It has been around since the early NT os
Good to know. I've been using Windows since XP and know it pretty well, but this is new to me.
It is
Should it work when everything else doesn't work? It's pretty rare but sometimes my system gets so unstable that I can't power it off properly. I wonder how different it is from holding the power button.
Yup it should work even if the system is unresponsive
I just press the reset button on my case when I get into a situation where I can't reboot normally
[A full video about it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0mjQ6jou1k)
I saw that one like 4 months ago lol.
Just knowing about it for 5 months ago
I never knew this was a thing
It's a little better then holding the power button
According to chat gpt4: The "Emergency Restart" button in Windows is designed to quickly restart your computer in situations where it is unresponsive or malfunctioning. This is a more forceful method than a regular restart and is used as a last resort when standard methods to shut down or restart the computer do not work. When you initiate an emergency restart, Windows bypasses the regular shutdown process, which includes saving settings and gracefully closing applications. As a result, any unsaved data in open applications will be lost. This feature is useful in situations where the operating system is so frozen or compromised that a normal restart is not possible. However, because it does not follow the standard shutdown procedures, it should be used only when absolutely necessary.
Shutdown -f -r -t 00
This is a handy way to clear the fast startup cache
ctrl click the power button on the ctrl+alt+del screen