Soft Restart in Windows Server 2016
A cool new, but optional feature has landed in Windows Server 2016: Soft Restart. Once installed, it provides the capability to initiate a soft restart, which skips hardware initialisation. In other words, it restarts the operating system without restarting the whole machine. After installation, there are two ways to initiate Soft Restart:
Command Line: shutdown /r /soft /t 0
PowerShell: Restart-Computer -Soft
The new (to be implemented) feature sounds very handy for physical servers with large amounts of memory and/or raid-controllers, eliminating the need to check these components. This will save minutes. This might, in particular, be handy when an unscheduled restart is needed during production hours. Well don’t, Microsoft.
Hello, Soft Restart is not implemented in Windows Server 2016 🙂 (only in preview versions)
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/b9cf0213-eca0-4002-9aec-5d7fda52b60c/soft-restart-not-in-server-2016-rtm?forum=winservergen
or
http://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2015/05/windows-server-technical-preview-2-soft-reboot/