Do you know how long it’s been since you restarted your Windows computer? There’s an easy way to check.

You probably already know that restarting your computer will often resolve a problem or error that has come up. I’ve often referred to restarting as a “magic pill” for computer repair since it fixes so many issues.

And along the same lines, restarting the computer on a regular basis is a good idea to proactively avoid some computer problems that can come up. I recommend restarting the computer every 1-2 days as a good practice.

When you restart your PC:

But here’s the big question – do you know when you last restarted your computer? In other words, how long has your computer been running continuously?

This is kind of a fun little quiz. Before you check this, take a guess as to how long ago you restarted the computer. 8 hours? 2 days? I’ve found that most people underestimate this. Once I asked a client how long ago the last restart was and she said she didn’t really know. When we checked, it was 45 days! Not a big surprised that her computer was acting funny.

Here’s how you find out when the last restart was (works the same on Windows 7 or Windows 10):

The taskbar is the bar that runs across the bottom of your screen:

Just do a RIGHT click on a blank part of the taskbar, and in the menu that comes up, click to run Task Manager:

When Task Manager opens, click on the “Performance” tab and look for the number indicating “Up time”:

The “Up time” number is configured as Days:Hours:Minutes:Seconds. So in the above screenshot from my own computer, it’s been 8 hours and 24 minutes since my PC was last booted up.

And remember – a restart is not just turning the computer off, then hitting the Power button to turn it back on. You have to actually click  the “Restart” option.

Did you check your “Up time”? Let us know what it was in the comments!