As many have noticed, when you use the “Restart” option on the Windows menu to restart your computer, most – if not all – of the programs that you had running when clicking it will reload as soon as you log back in after that restart.
Starting with Windows 8.1 and continuing in 10, Microsoft changed the shutdown and restart behaviors of the buttons on the Start menu in such a fashion that they are basically putting your computer to sleep instead of shutting everything down. Their reasoning for this was to promote faster (re)start times, but it does not help clear all the memory that the running programs use.
Here is a really easy way to do a full reboot of your Windows computer:
- Hold down the Windows(Super) Key and tap the letter “r”
- Type the following, then click “Ok:” shutdown -f -r -t 00
(-f = force shutdown -r = restart -t = time delay (00=immediate))
Once you click “Ok,” the computer will restart immediately, so make sure you’ve saved any important stuff before you do this.