Vista Restarting itself

[Summercoolness]

There were several times that when I see the Vista machine in the
morning, it has rebooted itself...

And today I saw the reason why: a window popped up at 3am saying in a
few minutes, it will reboot itself due to software upgrade.

Now, so if I am doing something important, like doing some
calculations overnight, and I am not at the computer, Vista will
decide it is best to reboot and stop the calculation? And any
unsaved data in notepad will be gone? Any pages I haven't finished
reading on Safari on Windows will be gone without warning?

A solution seem to just go to the Control Panel and change the
"Windows Upgrade" to ask me before doing any upgrade. But I wonder
why this design decision...

 

[Summercoolness]

There were several times that when I see the Vista machine in the
morning, it has rebooted itself...

And today I saw the reason why: a window popped up at 3am saying in a
few minutes, it will reboot itself due to software upgrade.

Now, so if I am doing something important, like doing some
calculations overnight, and I am not at the computer, Vista will
decide it is best to reboot and stop the calculation? And any
unsaved data in notepad will be gone? Any pages I haven't finished
reading on Safari on Windows will be gone without warning?

A solution seem to just go to the Control Panel and change the
"Windows Upgrade" to ask me before doing any upgrade. But I wonder
why this design decision...

hm.... nobody would like to explain why this design decision?

 

[David Hearn]

hm.... nobody would like to explain why this design decision?

Simple, applications should be written to make us of the Vista's Restart
Manager
<http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/2006/10/vista-restart-manager.html>
which allows applications to be exited to perform an update, and then
restarted after a reboot etc. Visual Studio 2008 certainly supports
this - it'll just take time for people to use it.

D

 

[Summercoolness]

Simple, applications should be written to make us of the Vista's Restart
Manager
<http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/2006/10/vista-restart-manager.html>
which allows applications to be exited to perform an update, and then
restarted after a reboot etc. Visual Studio 2008 certainly supports
this - it'll just take time for people to use it.

D

what if

1) it is an XP app
2) what if, like in IE, it is a form for 20 fields, and we filled out
15 and something came up. So the next day, those are gone?
3) what if i am calculating PI many decimal places overnight.... also
restore its session just for this "restarting" behavior?

 

[John Lee Brown]

Then simply turn off auto update and let it tell you when an update is
available.

 

[Summercoolness]

Then simply turn off auto update and let it tell you when an update is
available.

a somewhat important issue is that many users may not know it is due
to the auto update. they may for a few months see the machine
restarting thinking that the machine crashed or the power supply short-
circuited and rebooted itself. Forcing a restart is somewhat abrupt
action.... and silently at 3am...

how about at least in the restarted login screen, say that vista has
forced the restart and if you don't want it, what can be done.

 

[Swingman]

a somewhat important issue is that many users may not know it is due
to the auto update. they may for a few months see the machine
restarting thinking that the machine crashed or the power supply short-
circuited and rebooted itself. Forcing a restart is somewhat abrupt
action.... and silently at 3am...

how about at least in the restarted login screen, say that vista has
forced the restart and if you don't want it, what can be done.

LOL ... I agree with you, and I am, by anyone's definition, an _experienced_
computer user of 30 + years, with many different OS'es under my belt.

AAMOF, this very scenario caught me by surprise this morning while I was
doing some online banking, and although I knew, as it happened, the "why"
and "how" to insure that there are no repeat performances, I am certain that
many new to Vista, and windows in general, would be baffled.

One of the BIGGEST problems MSFT have created for the user down through the
years have been "DEFAULT SETTINGS", particularly in the security area ...
seems they are now making up for past sins, much to the occasional surprise
of even the most experienced user, albeit one who was certainly not paying
attention and should have known better.

And that's just one of the hazards of the concept of viewing a computer as
an "appliance".

 

[Summercoolness]

One of the BIGGEST problems MSFT have created for the user down through the
years have been "DEFAULT SETTINGS", particularly in the security area ...
seems they are now making up for past sins, much to the occasional surprise
of even the most experienced user,

Yes, and I wonder how many HP, Compaq, and Gateway computers are
returned to BestBuy or Circuit City because the users think their $799
PC for some reason reboots itself from time to time.

 

[Summercoolness]

much to the occasional surprise of even the most experienced user,

Yes, and I wonder how many HP, Compaq, and Gateway computers are
returned to BestBuy or Circuit City because the users think their $799
PC for some reason reboots itself from time to time.


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