Introduction

So you just installed new software or updates and Windows Vista tells you the computer needs to be restarted. This guide shows you how to shave a few seconds off the boot up time by performing a warm boot.

A “warm boot” is when you restart the computer without shutting down the BIOS, processor, or any of the other hardware components in your computer.

Warning: If you have a complex hardware setup (RAID for example) you might not want to perform a warm boot.

Perform a Warm Boot

1. Click the Start button.
2. Point at the arrow next to the lock button on the Start Menu.
3. Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and click Restart.

Hint: This feature works on Windows XP also by holding down Shift when you press Shut Down in the Start Menu.