[grrr]

[Apple Of Sodom]

Ah, you are IT at a slave work camp.

That sucks.

Yeah. Best Buy keeps their geeks pretty busy, I can tell you that much.

 

[ahenkel]

This thread is full of rage, and I love it.

 

[Ichinisan]

haha wow the OP is one of those people you meet in life who can just never EVER admit when they are wrong. the ENTIRE FUCKING THREAD is about people telling him how to fix his "problem" and he still will not listen to anyone and would rather continue to sound like a fucking moron.

thank you ATOT for the entertainment this afternoon!

Only Numenorean mentioned the solution (Group Policy tweak), which contradicted some of the other things he said and validated my rant.

If you have Win7 Home Premium, having automatic updates enabled risks automatic restarts unless you edit the registry.
Otherwise, you have to run gpedit.msc and find the right option (out of hundreds).

Unless a computer is part of a corporate domain, the option needs to be right there where you enable automatic updates: "Do not allow automatic restart."

 

[Lifted]

I think MS assumes that "install" might include "restart".

Well if Microsoft isn't even 100% sure, why should end users be?

 

[purbeast0]

Only Numenorean mentioned the solution (Group Policy tweak), which contradicted some of the other things he said and validated my rant.

If you have Win7 Home Premium, having automatic updates enabled risks automatic restarts unless you editing the registry.
Otherwise, you have to run gpedit.msc and find the right option (out of hundreds).

Unless a computer is part of a corporate domain, the option should be right there where you enable automatic updates: "Do not allow automatic restart."

the fact that you claim to "know more about this than anybody here" and are an IT professional yet still can't understand how to figure out the solution to your problem is funny as shit.

 

[CZroe]

There are a lot of retards in this thread, and the OP is NOT one of them. FORCING a restart without user approval is *never* OK unless the user SPECIFICALLY SCHEDULED it to. It goes against EVERYTHING they are supposed to stand for (reliability and data protection). Random or not, it's every bit as bad as a crash or lock-up.

Scheduling it to automatically download and install is NOT the same as giving permission to go ahead and restart. Some of you are too retarded to see why: Generally, a restart will happen eventually anyway while a manual installation may not. As anyone who has serviced PCs for general users can tell you, MANY ignorant users will let their automatically downloaded updates build up and never manually install them despite near CONSTANT prompts. Every techie should know this; or are all you kiddos too young to remember anything pre-Vista? I am disappoint. Even seeing the message about the PC being restarted to install updates annoys me, even if I didn't lose anything, because I know how WRONG it is.

At work, there is a 24/7 shared PC that we do all our shift reports, incident reports, scheduling, pass-down logs, and email on. Very often, when a situation is still developing, it makes sense to jot down details but not finish the report until the end of the shift in order to avoid wasting effort on something that's going to be re-written or not be needed at all (if it resolves itself, for example). A lot of it doesn't really have a way to save without "committing," so SOP is to leave it open. For example, we use Google Reader for our pass-down log, so if a tentative entry is not finished, it must be left typed in the field in the browser or specifically saved elsewhere. Let me point out that they don't want to see random "notes.txt" files all over the PC (I tried that). Shortly after I started working there, I lost hours of work when I left to do a tour of the facility and lost my Daily Activity Report, a draft email, several pass-down entries, and a half-written incident report. It's not my PC. I have no permission to change update settings. It gets restarted at least once per day, so there is plenty of reason to force an automatic update and no reason to force a restart. For some ridiculous nonsense reason, these options are bound together and you little sheep just accept that.

Grow up and become real critics. Earn your tech cred by KNOWING what is wrong with the way things are and CHALLENGING those with the power to correct it to do so.

 

[Lifted]

This is nothing new whatsoever.

Actually it is relatively new. This did not use to happen.

Yay, you just learned something new! :thumbsup:

 

[Ghiddy]

That means that I have to stand by and wait while the updates are installed. I simply want automatic updates to behave as it once did...respecting ME as the user of the computer.




What's with all the idiots who think I "didn't know" about the option to notify and manually install updates? Seriously? Of course I know. God-fucking-dammit!

So you claim you were aware of the options, yet still chose the one that would result in automatic updates, and still didn't save your work -> your fault

if you didn't know that the auto-updates would auto-restart, yet claim to know more than anyone about this stuff -> your fault

not saving your work, no matter what your level of understanding is regarding windows updates, because other stuff could go wrong -> your fault

not using apps that auto-save, like MS Word, or cloud based stuff like google tasks which take care of auto-save for you -> your fault

OP, YOUR FAULT.

YOUR FAULT, OP.

YOUR FAULT.

 

[lxskllr]

The ATOT know-it-all's can't even agree on why the OP is an idiot, and in the process, they are making themselves look like idiots.

Anyone who's used Windows for any amount of time knows to save early, and save often. It's gotten very stable over the last bunch of years, but crashes used to be common.

Without knowing nothin' about nothin', it can be inferred that something bad will happen once the time has lapsed in that dropdown box. What happens after 4 hours? You don't know? Well, what's likely to happen? What's likely to happen is your machine will restart since the time ran out. Without even knowing if that's correct, logic would lead to that conclusion.

How do we fix this? We save our work as has been drilled into most of our heads over the last 30 years or so, and we set Windows Update to notify, but not install updates. Problem solved.

 

[bobdole369]

Only Numenorean mentioned the solution (Group Policy tweak), which contradicted some of the other things he said and validated my rant.

If you have Win7 Home Premium, having automatic updates enabled risks automatic restarts unless you editing the registry.
Otherwise, you have to run gpedit.msc and find the right option (out of hundreds).

Unless a computer is part of a corporate domain, the option should be right there where you enable automatic updates: "Do not allow automatic restart."

Here exactly is the difference.

Home Premium (or whatever garbage) is not a mission critical OS. They are not part of a domain and business users don't use it.

Thus the user is treated as if they were just along for the ride and they aren't given any option. If you want this fine-grained control over your OS - use Professional and gpedit.msc or edit the registry.

A home user is not afforded the same luxury as a business user.

Comma.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

It's also lost upon IndyColtsFan and half the peoiple in this thread arguing with the OP that either

A) he should have known
B) it doesn't automatically restart

The two are mutually exclusive.

The ATOT know-it-all's can't even agree on why the OP is an idiot, and in the process, they are making themselves look like idiots.

Errr, I didn't say it didn't automatically restart. I suggested that he choose a different setting (automatic update download and prompt for install). He said "But I have to sit there while it updates!," implying that he can't do a thing which is bull. You can delay it in 4 hour blocks. Who cares if it reboots later at midnight? Don't you think that if you've hit "delay for 4 hours" a couple of times that you might get the clue?

 

[Ichinisan]

OP wants them downloaded automatically, not installed.

That is not what OP wants.

Installed = rebooted if needed.

That's not what it meant a few years back. Microsoft has only been doing the forced restarts for the last few years.

The meaning changed, and Microsoft doesn't make it obvious to the user. Not OK.

 

[Ghiddy]

There are a lot of retards in this thread, and the OP is NOT one of them. FORCING a restart without user approval is *never* OK unless the user SPECIFICALLY SCHEDULED it to. It goes against EVERYTHING they are supposed to stand for (reliability and data protection). Random or not, it's every bit as bad as a crash or lock-up.

Scheduling it to automatically download and install is NOT the same as giving permission to go ahead and restart. Some of you are too retarded to see why: Generally, a restart will happen eventually anyway while a manual installation may not, as anyone who has serviced PCs for general users can tell you. MANY ignorant users will let their automatically downloaded updates build up and never manually install them despite near CONSTANT prompts. Every techie should know this; or are all you kiddos too young to remember anything pre-Vista? I am disappoint. Even seeing the message about the PC being restarted to install updates annoys me, even if I didn't lose anything, because I know how WRONG it is.

At work, there is a 24/7 shared PC that we do all our shift reports, incident reports, scheduling, pass-down logs, and email on. Very often, when a situation is still developing, it makes sense to jot down details but not finish the report until the end of the shift in order to avoid wasting effort on something that's going to be re-written or not be needed at all (if it resolves itself, for example). A lot of it doesn't really have a way to save without "committing," so SOP is to leave it open. For example, we use Google Reader for our pass-down log, so if a tentative entry is not finished, it must be left typed in the field in the browser or specifically saved elsewhere. Let me point out that they don't want to see random "notes.txt" files all over the PC (I tried that). Shortly after I started working there, I lost hours of work when I left to do a tour of the facility and lost my Daily Activity Report, a draft email, several pass-down entries, and a half-written incident report. It's not my PC. I have no permission to change update settings. It gets restarted at least once per day, so there is plenty of reason to force an automatic update and no reason to force a restart. For some ridiculous nonsense reason, these options are bound together and you little sheep just accept that.

Grow up and become real critics. Earn your tech cred by KNOWING what is wrong with the way things are and CHALLENGING those with the power to correct it to do so.

I agree with you, that it's stupid of MS to design the updates to automatically restart, but that's not really the issue with the OP. He claims to be knowledgable in this type of thing, so he should have been aware that restarts would take place automatically. Unless he just installed Win7, in which case lesson learned – though still, tough luck – and it's still his fault because no matter what he should have saved his work.

 

[Ichinisan]

the fact that you claim to "know more about this than anybody here" and are an IT professional yet still can't understand how to figure out the solution to your problem is funny as shit.

There's a solution. My particular situation was unfortunate. Microsoft's decision to change the standard behavior a few years back is rage-inducing.

 

[Lifted]

Without knowing nothin' about nothin', it can be inferred that something bad will happen once the time has lapsed in that dropdown box. What happens after 4 hours? You don't know? Well, what's likely to happen? What's likely to happen is your machine will restart since the time ran out. Without even knowing if that's correct, logic would lead to that conclusion.

Microsoft apologist. Do they pay you for this?

 

[CZroe]

Actually, I completely agree with the OP, but only to a certain extent. If your computer is set to automatically update, you have no choice but to have your computer shut down (if you're not at the keyboard.)

Just for an example, let's suppose you're going to snipe an ebay auction. The auction ends at 2:55. It's 2:51 and you figure you have a couple minutes to run to the kitchen and grab a drink. You come back, and your computer is shut down. *@#$*!!!!


However, in most of the cases the OP mentioned... let's see... if my browser is shut down unexpectedly, it reopens all the same tabs the next time my computer is turned on. Word, Excel, etc., automatically save any progress every minute. Almost every program that I use that I would be entering a lot of data or doing other work with will say "recovered..." the next time I start it up.

And, lastly, you numbnuts out there are assuming the OP set up his operating system to act that way. Perhaps he bought it from Dell?? The operating system is pre-installed?

In my experience, things left typed into browser fields never restore. Neither does unsaved Notepad text.

 

[mb]

That is not what OP wants.



That's not what it meant a few years back. Microsoft has only been doing the forced restarts for the last few years.

The meaning changed, and Microsoft doesn't make it obvious to the user. Not OK.

So have you been aware of the change for a few years? If so you're just making an even worse case for yourself. I could understand your frustration if they changed it last week. Maybe last month. But a few years ago? Come on.

 

[CZroe]

yet none of us posted about losing all our work due to an automatic restart

Even if that were true (I did), do you really think that means anything? Look at what he is ACTUALLY SAYING and stop jumping to stupid conclusions.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I agree with you, that it's stupid of MS to design the updates to automatically restart, but that's not really the issue with the OP. He claims to be knowledgable in this type of thing, so he should have been aware that restarts would take place automatically. Unless he just installed Win7, in which case lesson learned – though still, tough luck – and it's still his fault because no matter what he should have saved his work.

Good post -- I agree 100%. CZRoe completely missed the point here. We can all muse about what MS should do, but IMO, they do give you plenty of options and if you don't like their options, other options are available. It wasn't that along ago that MS was getting lambasted in the media on a daily basis for their security holes and grandma's computer was flooding the internet with worms. Windows Update may be an imperfect solution (I think we can all agree that they could be more clear, ESPECIALLY during Windows setup), but it is better than nothing.

 

[Schfifty Five]

You still have no option of keeping it from automatically restarting at some point once that pops up. You better set your alarm clock if that pops up at bedtime and you have a task that needs to run overnight. A simple of drop down option of "do not restart automatically" while still giving the reminder periodically would solve the problem.

And I can't believe how much hate there is in this thread. It's fucking worse than P&N.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that pop up window where you can select 10 min, 1 hour, 4 hours to postpone, won't actually restart your comp if you just leave the pop-up there.

The 10min/1hr/4hr thing is just the interval of when windows will bug you again about it. I think you can just leave that window up and it will not auto-restart.

Again, someone correct me if that is wrong.

 

[Ichinisan]

I didn't bother to mention this...

Except in cases where it's far too annoying, I keep most settings at "recommended" / default selections because I do telephone support and I want to be intimately familiar with the expected behavior of a typical customer's PC. I can help most customers navigate through obscure menus blindly...even for antiquated operating systems.

 

[lxskllr]

Microsoft apologist. Do they pay you for this?

Sort of. They gave me a copy of Vista for watching some somewhat informative web seminars :^D I primarily run Ubuntu now though. Still no guarantees. The wind started tearing ass around here, so I scanned my desktop for loose ends. Nothing important was open. Good thing too. My power blinked off for a second, and I would have lost my work if something important was open ;^)

 

[lxskllr]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that pop up window where you can select 10 min, 1 hour, 4 hours to postpone, won't actually restart your comp if you just leave the pop-up there.

The 10min/1hr/4hr thing is just the interval of when windows will bug you again about it. I think you can just leave that window up and it will not auto-restart.

Again, someone correct me if that is wrong.

Don't know. I can't stand the tension so I do what I'm supposed to do :^D

 

[CZroe]

Your ranting against Microsoft aside, you still walked away from the PC with work unsaved.

If your hard drive had died, you'd be yelling at Western Digital.
If the power had failed, you'd be yelling at the power company.
If your video driver caused your system to blue screen, you'd be yelling at Nvidia.

Saving doesn't take long.

This is silly. Those are calculated risks. He's blaming MS because they CHOSE to change this behavior. To compare them is silly. A HDD manufacturer doesn't just chose to make their next model arbitrarily crash at 3:00AM on Wednesdays. Microsoft, OTOH, specifically promoted IMPROVED reliability and renewed focus on protecting user data with each new iteration and then chose to make a change that absolutely WILL cause data loss.

 

[Ichinisan]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that pop up window where you can select 10 min, 1 hour, 4 hours to postpone, won't actually restart your comp if you just leave the pop-up there.

The 10min/1hr/4hr thing is just the interval of when windows will bug you again about it. I think you can just leave that window up and it will not auto-restart.

Again, someone correct me if that is wrong.

Unfortunately, it's wrong. It *will* restart even if you keep postponing.

The only work around is an obscure tweak using gpedit.msc or regedit.