is it bad to never put your computer to sleep if you shut it down everyday

Answer 1

Whether it's bad to never put your computer to sleep if you shut it down every day depends on your usage patterns and the specific needs of your computer.

Here are a few considerations:

### Pros of Shutting Down Daily
1. **Energy Savings**: Shutting down your computer will save electricity compared to leaving it in sleep mode.
2. **Component Longevity**: Frequent shutdowns might potentially extend the life of certain components by allowing them to cool down.
3. **System Reboot**: Restarting your computer regularly can help in clearing out temporary files and memory, which can improve performance.

### Pros of Sleep Mode
1. **Convenience**: Putting your computer to sleep allows you to resume your work almost instantly without having to go through a full boot process.
2. **Power Usage**: Sleep mode consumes very little power, so it's energy-efficient while still being more convenient than a full shutdown.
3. **Preserving State**: You can leave programs and documents open, which saves time compared to reopening everything after a shutdown.

### Is It Bad?
- **Hardware Stress**: Frequent on-and-off cycles (like daily shutdowns) could hypothetically add stress to certain hardware components over the very long term. Most modern components, however, are designed to handle this without significant wear.
- **Software Updates**: Some software updates, especially those related to the operating system, may not fully apply until you reboot the computer. Similarily, maintenance tasks like disk defragmentation or backups may not complete as efficiently.

### Balanced Approach
You might find a balanced approach useful:
- **Sleep Mode During Day, Shutdown at Night**: Use sleep mode during the day between uses to quickly resume work, and shut down at night when you won't be using the computer for extended periods.
- **Hybrid Sleep**: Some computers offer a hybrid sleep mode, which is a mix of sleep and hibernate. This allows for quick resume times with the added data protection benefit of hibernate mode.

### For Laptops
For laptops, the power draw, battery health, and wear-and-tear could also be factors. Battery charging cycles matter, so balancing sleep and shutdown according to your usage might help extend battery life.

Overall, there's no definitive answer that fits all scenarios. It depends on your specific needs and usage patterns, but using a mix of both sleep and shutdown is generally advised to get the convenience of quick resume times and the benefits of firmware and software updates from full reboots.