Do you have to hold the power button or press a single time to shut down via power button?

[Lee Johnathan]

I couldn't shut down properly and I hold the power button to shut down.

Next time this happens again, should I press a single time or hold the power button for a few seconds?
Edit- using PC (Widows 8)


I'm a noob, please help.

 

[hunter315]

If you press it while booted into windows, windows will do whatever you have it set to do on power button press. If you need to do a hard shutdown holding it for 5 seconds will cause the board to end the power on signal to the PSU which will cut power very quickly.

 

[aevm]

Why don't you just press a single time and see what happens... Maybe nothing, maybe it will restart, maybe it will shut down.

On my latest PC I need to hold it for a few seconds.

 

[Lee Johnathan]

After holding it, I then realized I should have pressed a single time. I did the hard shutdown, it that dangerous?

 

[ohyouknow]

Pressing power button while it's on usually puts the computer to sleep from my experience.

 

[aevm]

After holding it, I then realized I should have pressed a single time. I did the hard shutdown, it that dangerous?

It could lead to HDD corruption, if you were in the middle of writing something to it. It's always best to use the shutdown or sleep commands from the menu. That way Windows sends a special message to all running apps, and they have a chance to catch it and close files properly.