Should you shut down your computer every night?

I was wondering if I should shut down my computer and I did some search. Here is what I found:

YES

1) Most websites recommend you to shut down to save energy and to prevent hackers from hacking your computer. (Source)

2) Most users also recommend you to shut down your computer because they also think that it is important to save energy (and the Earth) (Source).

3) Some users recommend cutting off the power to save the lifespan of the harddisk. Data given was that the average service life of a hard disk is usually given as "5 years or 20,000 hours." 

4) Some users do not understand why the computer must be left turned on when not in use.

5) Some users experience frequent power surges and shut down the computer to avoid recovery problems.

NO
1) Most users prefer to leave the computer turned on to avoid the long loading time for the operating system (Vista and XP for Windows, to be specific).
2) Some users think you are more pron to activating an undetected virus by constantly turning your computer on and shutting off.
3) Some users leave the computer switched on because of online activities such as on-going downloading, overnight server upgrade, file server requirements or scheduled activities.
4) Out of convenience, some users forgot to turn off the computer.
5) Some users experienced more hardware problems when the computer is shut down daily.

NOT SURE
1) these are people like me, who did the surf
2) some of these people are like you, reading my blog and wondering what is the outcome?

I went even to Microsoft's website. They have this FAQ page that tells you how to shut down and why it does not shut down (this happens in cases when XP or Vista is upgraded to Win 7). But it seems to be meant for Vista and not Win 7. Win 7 does not have the Sleep Function they were talking about. While they do not have a page to recommend you what to do, they have analysed the difference between some of the scenerios you may want to think about (Read here).


CONCLUSION
I will definitely still shut down my computer. And now even to take out the plug from the socket. I will also need to reschedule my daily scannings to a time that I am using the computer.

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*Lynspirations

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