What is the process of restarting a computer referred to as?

The process of restarting a computer is referred to as a "warm boot." This term describes the action of rebooting the computer without shutting it down completely and then turning it back on. When a warm boot is performed, the operating system is reloaded, and any temporary settings or files in memory are cleared, allowing the system to refresh itself without going through the full power-off cycle.

In contrast, a "cold boot" refers to starting a computer that has been completely powered off. This requires turning on the power, which initializes all hardware components from a completely off state. The terms "hard reboot" and "circuit restart" are less commonly used in standard terminology related to rebooting a computer. A hard reboot typically implies forcing the system to restart forcibly, often by cutting power or using a reset button, which isn't necessarily the same as a warm boot.

Understanding the different types of boots is essential as they imply different methods of resetting a system and can impact how hardware initializes and how software behaves during the process.