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Here's a perfect example of why Windows Update's forced reboots suck
Up until now, I've never really had a big problem with Windows popping up that little "hey, I'm gonna reboot to finish these updates unless you postpone me" message. Today, however, I'm changing my tune: the forced reboot timer has to go.
Last night, I had a VirtualBox VM running a rather lengthy dd operation -- cloning one virtual hard disk to another. The original was 25GB, so it was bound to take a little while. When I left my machine at night, there was no update notification yet. When I sat down this morning, what greeted me?
The Windows 7 welcome screen. Oh shit. Are you kidding me?
Nope. It seems as though the updates which ran last night felt that warning the empty room in front of my monitors was sufficient and then proceeded to reboot -- even though there were clearly some very active, non-Windows processes running.
Sure, I understand there are settings, tweaks, and third party apps which can prevent this -- but wouldn't it make more sense for Windows to default to nagging me incessantly about rebooting to complete the update process? You know, rather than letting me delay it four hours to a time when I won't be around to click postpone again and causing me to re-do a very lengthy task.
Well, off I go to change the default Windows Update settings.
Last night, I had a VirtualBox VM running a rather lengthy dd operation -- cloning one virtual hard disk to another. The original was 25GB, so it was bound to take a little while. When I left my machine at night, there was no update notification yet. When I sat down this morning, what greeted me?
The Windows 7 welcome screen. Oh shit. Are you kidding me?
Nope. It seems as though the updates which ran last night felt that warning the empty room in front of my monitors was sufficient and then proceeded to reboot -- even though there were clearly some very active, non-Windows processes running.
Sure, I understand there are settings, tweaks, and third party apps which can prevent this -- but wouldn't it make more sense for Windows to default to nagging me incessantly about rebooting to complete the update process? You know, rather than letting me delay it four hours to a time when I won't be around to click postpone again and causing me to re-do a very lengthy task.
Well, off I go to change the default Windows Update settings.
Comments
44
Subscribe to commentsRobertJun 24th 2010 1:47PM
Sounds like you are making a big deal out of nothing. I've been caught like this before. Lost some photoshop files this way. But the solution is, as you say, change the update settings.
Most people have pissed and moaned about those popups being overly intrusive. So MS did the right thing to reduce that. And you are saying you would rather be annoyed???
Amazing.
gfsJun 24th 2010 2:47PM
I agree with you, it's very annoying.. I think it would be enough that the popup msg told me that the install was done, and that it recomends a reboot
r3loadedJun 24th 2010 1:55PM
You can keep auto-install on for updates without it forcing a reboot. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU and set the DWORD value NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers to 1 (create it if necessary). Restart the Windows Update service, and you're done!
ramblingbuddhaJun 24th 2010 2:06PM
I had the exact same thing happen to me this morning, my virtual machine got whacked by a windows 7 auto-reboot. You can prevent this with a group policy change to your machine (doesn't work on Windows 7 home or home premium FYI)
http://www.techspot.com/guides/230-prevent-automatic-windows-update-restarts/
ZeRoJun 24th 2010 2:15PM
Everyone is missing the point. The point of the article is not how to get rid of it. The author is clearly aware of this. The point of this article is that from a usability stand point, windows should not restart when it feels like and it should give users a clear option. In short it should just work without interfering with your work. Thus the author point to correct the issue, which i throughly agree as I was transfering 120 gigs over ethernet from pc to pc only to come back in the morning to see that bloody "windows has successfully updated your computer" balloon tip in the right hand corner
>=( Am I write Matt?
plasmasheepJun 24th 2010 2:33PM
I agree - this is quite stupid, and it is definitely one of the reasons why I do not use windows if I can avoid it. It doesn't matter if you can shut it off - why would it be on at all?
With the "dude lol tweak settings" logic, the GUI should also be off by default, I mean, hey, you can just tweak this registry setting via the command line and turn the GUI on again, right?
Secret Asian ManJun 24th 2010 3:05PM
I agree that that is exactly the point the author was making.
It's rather asinine to have an OS automatically shut itself down without the user's explicit instruction to do so by default. If it does shut down, it should at least be able to recognize that some programs are running and should postpone it. I mean, when the user actually shuts down the OS while a program i running, Windows does informs the user that.
On a Mac, even explicit commands to shut down or log out will get canceled if some sort of application fails to quit in time because it's doing something and needs a user's confirmation to stop. Many applications do ask for a confirmation when it has to quit in a middle of a task. When loss of data or progress will result, many applications will cancel a shut down until the user clicks save or quit. Even Safari does this when you entered some text in a text box but have not submitted it.
Macs will never shut itself down or restart unless it was scheduled by the user to do so and can still cancel the shut down if the above paragraph applies.
When automatic updates are enabled, all updates are downloaded in the background and are only applied when the user shuts down or restarts the Mac.
Computers should run on the USERS' terms, not the other way around.
Dr_ElusiveJun 24th 2010 2:25PM
I am an engineer at a TV station, and we got caught by windows auto rebooting when an Always on the air Keyer computer (For weather Crawls) rebooted on its own during the middle of the night causing us to lose video for 2 mins till it came back up. Thanks Windows.
MxxConJun 24th 2010 8:02PM
what kind of incompetent tv station do you run that:
1) doesn't have redundant equipment for all mission critical systems
2) doesn't know how to control their computers with group policy
Dr_ElusiveJun 25th 2010 12:25AM
1) Redundancy is expensive (and would not have helped in this case), remember we give you TV for Free.
2) The equipment comes setup from the vendor, Changing random settings on vendor equipment can cause Huge issues. This issue was brought up with them and corrected.
David MoisanJun 26th 2010 12:38PM
I can't believe the vendor would not have a scenario for that equipment being domain-joined and controlled by policy (either GP or local). We have equipment at a public-access cable station that is joined to our domain and set to disable automatic reboots. We have WSUS, so we can manage the timing of our updates for critical machines like our air machines and yours.
villezJun 24th 2010 2:36PM
Your own fault imo.
Cas CornelissenJun 24th 2010 2:44PM
Haha, funny to read this now!
I forgot to save a .psd last night and my windows also updated, so I lost the psd but happily I already transformed it into html.
Stupid me for not saving it...
RogueJedi86Jun 24th 2010 2:46PM
Also annoying is how the box pops up randomly with the mouse defaulting to the "Restart Now" button. Very annoying if you're doing something that requires a lot of clicking(like playing a shooter in windowed mode, or some flash game), suddenly your mouse is clicking a Restart button and your computer is rebooting even though you didn't prepare to reboot yet, losing crap you hadn't saved. Apparently "Restart Later" means "Bring this box up in 5 minutes to get in your way again, and not in an hour".
OtafuJun 24th 2010 3:09PM
I hate it!
I was running a VM and whenever I forgot to shut it down, I tried to reboot my computer and it would complain like saying "Hey, there's a VM running! Close it first! Are you out of your mind???"
But then, the Windows Update had to reboot and it destroyed the process just like that!!! Windows god power! :O
Just change the auto-update setting and problem fixed.
Cheers
codeman38Jun 24th 2010 3:04PM
I had to run a program once for a class project that took several hours to run. Ended up running it overnight on a computer in the department's lab, because they were faster than my computer at the time, and because I didn't want to disturb anyone who needed to use the lab.
Yep, you guessed it: The program ended up getting stopped halfway through by a Windows update.
JonnyJun 24th 2010 3:14PM
This is why I always update manually.
Level 5Jun 24th 2010 3:29PM
Windows SHOULD default to a manual reboot ONLY for updates and here's why.
In a corporate setting, not all users have administrator right, thus cannot change the Windows Update Settings. Left something running? Gone. Had your windows arranged just the way you like it, not anymore. And you cannot change this without the explicit consent of your IT admin or boss. Fail.
Luckily, I'm the IT guy.
stinlen56Jun 24th 2010 4:00PM
If you're the IT guy then why not push it out in a group policy or dictate the behavior through WSUS?
DrakkenfyreJun 24th 2010 9:28PM
He is the IT guy.
Not everyone is. He is recommending by default this be the behavior for other people who have this happen, who may not be the IT guy, or have one who cares.