Honestly, if Windows Update worked like Linux updates tend to, I would leave them on 100% of the time. On just about every Linux system, I can upgrade the entire operating system and all the packages all at once without a reboot. Sure, the kernel does get updated from time to time, but the system is in no hurry to force the new kernel to load right away, and just switches to it at the next reboot.
By contrast, every single Windows Update that I deal with (a) requires a restart for seemingly no reason, (b) slows down the shutdown process immensely, and then (c) goes through sometimes multiple long installation processes, during which I cannot use my machine.
Of course, as a casual user, I would find Windows Update annoying enough to want to disable it. More so when my computer decides to restart of its own accord, sometimes right in the middle of me actively using it.
(Obviously, I am security conscious enough that I don't really disable Automatic Updates on my Windows boxes, and instead just remember to reboot my machine once in a while so it goes through them on my schedule.)
Could switching the Windows Update UI to a scheduled weekly reboot + updates (call it "Maintenance" or something) be useful? Would fewer people see the need to try to disable the updates if they could control exactly when they would happen, consistently?
Rebooting in the middle of a game or what have you is the worst feature. It happened with 7 too but was easier to disable (and doesn't get re-enabled when you update anything). It makes me think that malware often tends to be more respectful of your computer than Microsoft. Sure there are cryptolockers, but if you have backups those are an inconvenience. Keyloggers? Bloody drivers ship with them now. Becoming part of a botnet sounds pretty benign compared to Windows' update process.
It's simply hilarious to see Windows Update force rebooting machines in the middle of professional games.
Basically, a computer running Windows is actually owned by the Microsoft overlord who can do whatever the hell it wants to do. Occasionally it allows you to use the computer at its mercy.
MSFT upgrades are a joke. I worked at MS and the number of times a machine decides to restart in the middle of a presentation is not even funny. This was in the windows department.
It seems the decision was forced down by management. I hope someone up the chain realizes how much its cost to the actual users.
There was a joke at MSFT "you don't become a VP without making the company lose a billion dollars"
I love GNU/Linux and I love bashing Windows but I remember a time not even ten years ago that people (better at computers than I am) would not dare run apt-get upgrade before a presentation.
I think it still applies today.
Personally, I don't understand computers well so thus might be misguided but what I want is something similar to se Linux or jails but every application stack lives on its own and does not share libraries with anyone else. The idea us upgrading one application should not break another.
There's a lot of prior art and stuff existing along those lines. Plan 9 allowed every process to have its own /proc filesystem separate from the global one, and could give out per-process references to hardware devices too. Illumos implemented the Linux kernel's interface so you can run binaries built for GNU/Linux inside a secure Zone. (MS implemented something similar so it's nice you can run bash natively in Win10 now, but there's no security in that...) Guix/NixOS have a package management system with atomic upgrades and rollbacks that should never lead to a borked system. Dependency management is crucial since you can isolate all you want -- build an OS where every application is its own docker image if you want -- but as soon as things want to talk to each other, if you don't account for API changes on that communication channel you will have a broken system.
But can any of it overcome worse-is-better? Are these things really that desirable for a personal computer or are they more suited to production servers? I've been using Gentoo as my main OS since 2007, on my current rig that I put together in 2009, and I wouldn't be that surprised if I'm still using it in 2027. Even knowing about other systems' advances I'm still using my own preferred set of compromises.
Laptop decided it had to update while i was also updating security settings on my wifi.
both laptop and network were unable to reboot on their own.
luckily i also have wired network and other computers. so, i was able to recover; network didn't take too much to come bac k up. needed to create and use a recovery drive for the win10 laptop.
By contrast, every single Windows Update that I deal with (a) requires a restart for seemingly no reason, (b) slows down the shutdown process immensely, and then (c) goes through sometimes multiple long installation processes, during which I cannot use my machine.
Of course, as a casual user, I would find Windows Update annoying enough to want to disable it. More so when my computer decides to restart of its own accord, sometimes right in the middle of me actively using it.
(Obviously, I am security conscious enough that I don't really disable Automatic Updates on my Windows boxes, and instead just remember to reboot my machine once in a while so it goes through them on my schedule.)
Could switching the Windows Update UI to a scheduled weekly reboot + updates (call it "Maintenance" or something) be useful? Would fewer people see the need to try to disable the updates if they could control exactly when they would happen, consistently?