Benefits of leaving computers turned on

I had someone ask me what were the benefits of leaving their computer turned on all the time.

The biggest thing I can say is Updates. If you set your Windows and Antivirus software to update automatically and you leave your computer turned on you can accomplish the updates while you are sleeping and therefore not wasting valuable time doing it when you get up in the morning. Most lay computer users forget to do the updates themselves, ( I have personally seen computers that have had no updates done in years ).

Another benefit that I see is less thermal stress on the components when you leave your computer turned on rather than constantly turning it on and off. The constant cooling and heating of chips by powering down every night seems to wear them out faster, and the moving components like fans and Hard Drives being powered down and then turned back on each day seems to wear them out faster too.

If you are going to leave your computer turned on make sure you have a good Firewall and have good antivirus software running. Those are a must for everyone. Also make sure that you do a reboot ( or restart ), that clears up items in the computer's memory and gives it a fresh start every so often.

John