Always on or shut down every night?

I am a systems engineer and a computer science major currently seeking a masters degree in the subject. It isn't a virus unless it replicates. Most malware does not qualify as a virus. None of this has anything to do with shutting a machine down. I just pointed out that malware will be written to disk as well as sitting in ram. Turning the machine off at night or when not in use provides no protection.

 

If it's not a server, I would not leave it on. You could theoretically, but I would like to think that it would be best to turn it off at times, either set intervals or nightly. I never leave my laptop on. As soon as I'm finished with it, it's lights out.

I don't want anything happening to it, so I'm cautious because I believe leaving it on will make it die even quicker because of the continuous processes running all the time. I don't even like letting desktops pull power from an outlet, so I turn those off to.

 

Even without evidence to support a noticeable difference in product life? I have a 2006 era laptop and a 2008 PC that are always on. They work great.

 

Shut down every night. With the constant threat of hackers and viruses a complete shutdown is needed in today's world.

 

I never keep the laptop on at night. Even if the computer states that it'll update first and then shut down I'll wait for the whole process to finish instead of just clicking the power button on my laptop. I'm not sure if leaving it on is actually harming your computer, but I just have a self-conscious feeling that I need to turn it off. I've never seen what happens if you don't, but I'm sure nothing really happens. I just think of it as letting your computer rest for the night.

 

When I borrow a netbook from the library I always turn it off when I'm not using it. I turn the little netbook off to save money on electricity and I don't want to burn the little machine either.