Use the Emergency Restart Feature to Restart An Unresponsive Windows
1 min read
Summary
Emergency Restart is a secret feature of Windows which is designed to force a reboot of the computer, even if the system is completely frozen
It adds a ‘force’ flag when restarting, which means all processes are closed immediately, without the usual shutdown protocols
This makes it useful if the computer freezes and becomes completely unresponsive, but it is important to know the data will be lost for any unsaved work
To use Emergency Restart, open the Ctrl + Alt + Del screen and hold Ctrl to click the power button, confirming the emergency restart
This provides a convenient way to reboot a machine which is stuck, and is preferable to simply switching it off, as it informs Windows it is restarting.
