What is a cold boot?

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A cold boot refers to the process of powering up a computer from a completely powered-off state. This often involves turning on the power supply and allows the computer's hardware components, such as the motherboard, GPU, and CPU, to initialize, followed by loading the operating system from scratch.

This definition distinguishes a cold boot from other processes like a warm boot, which involves restarting a running system without cutting power. Understanding the distinction is crucial for recognizing various computer operational states, as different boot types can impact the overall system performance and the state of ongoing processes.