What does refresh do on a computer?

Question

Pretty much all of us have used it, but many of us don't know what it does.

Answer 1

What refresh does is refreshes (updates) the information displayed on the screen. An example: say you save a file to a folder you are currently viewing and it's not there. What refresh will do is update the display and then the file will be displayed.

Answer 2

On the web browser, it simply asks the webserver for the page again. Essentially it's like clicking the link that took you to the page again.

Answer 3

It reloads the page you are on, so if anything additional has been added, it should be on the page now that you have refreshed it.

Answer 4

The refresh button allows a static page to update information that has changed. For example, if you look at a web page with live stock market information you might see an array of numbers that are fixed. However, during transaction hours the stock market is a busy place and things are changing very rapidly. Pushing the refresh button on a browser allows the page to update the numbers.

Answer 5

If you mean refresh as in refresh the screen or view, it does exactly that.  It clears the information and then refreshes the information for a new view of what you're looking at.  If anything changed, it will show the changes.  If not, it will stay the same.