soft boot

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

soft boot

   <operating system> A {boot} which resets only part of the
   {system}.

   For example, "If you're running the {mess-dos} {emulator},
   control-alt-insert will cause a soft boot of the emulator,
   while leaving the rest of the system running".

   Contrast {hard boot}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1995-11-27)