system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What is the order of shutting down a computer/laptop? Which hardware pieces are shut down first, and last?
gpt
The purpose of a proper shutdown is to save data in applications and services to disk to prevent data corruption and data loss. As well as to cleanup logs and temporary data. This way digital garbage data (left-overs from a running application) isn't left lying about on your computer taking up space or potentially causing issues during a bootup or application start.

1. Applications are shutdown, logged in users are warned to save data in applications that are still running. Programs are then forcefully closed after a timeout.

2. Users are logged out, sessions are terminated, disables the GUI interface to prevent any application launches

3. Services (applications that run in the background) are stopped. Drivers are unmounted. Hard drives and other devices with moving parts are stopped. Data in caches is written to disk to prevent data loss.

4. Computer sends termination signal to the hardware, turning the power into standby mode (off)