The short answer is: no, it doesn’t. When you choose ‘Shut down’, Windows closes all your programs, shuts itself down and switches off your PC, but when you choose ‘Log off’, Windows continues running and the computer stays on. The one similarity is that all your programs are closed.
Windows now sets up everything the way you like it: your desktop wallpaper, your desktop icons, your sound effects, your volume levels, and so on. When you go to the ‘My Documents’ folder, it shows your documents rather than those belonging to another of your PC’s users, and each program you use will load your personal settings and preferences. As an example of how important that last point is, if you start your email program, you’ll see only your own email messages and it will connect to your own email account to collect your own new messages.
Perhaps you have other usernames set up on your PC, and one of those people would like to use the PC when you’ve finished with it. This is where that ‘Log off’ option is useful: you choose ‘Log off’ and Windows closes your programs and returns you to the ‘Log on’ screen. That other user can now click his username, type his password, and use Windows with everything set up the way he likes it.
The result, then, is that if there’s only one username set up on your PC, there’s rarely any point in using the ‘Log off’ option. Similarly, even if Windows is set up for multiple users, if no-one wants to use the PC after you, you might as well head straight for the ‘Shut down’ option.
Finally, a quick clarification for Windows 8 users. Although I’ve referred to ‘Log off’ above, Windows 8 refers to it as ?Sign out’. Also, rather oddly, that ‘Sign out’ option doesn’t appear in the same place as ‘Shut down’, ‘Restart’ and other related options: to log off, go to the Start screen, click your name in the top-right corner and choose Sign out from the menu.
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