Updates at boot-up

[boomerang]

I work for a very large corporation.

The majority of mornings in any given week, at boot-up, myself and my co-workers throughout the corporation have to wait while updates are installed. Sometimes they require a re-boot, sometimes two.

Is this truly necessary? By that I mean can't this be done at shut-down? What a waste of productivity.

We're all on XP Pro. The upgrade from 2000 is complete or has to be very close to it. I haven't a clue what's running on their servers.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: boomerang
I work for a very large corporation.

The majority of mornings in any given week, at boot-up, myself and my co-workers throughout the corporation have to wait while updates are installed. Sometimes they require a re-boot, sometimes two.

Is this truly necessary? By that I mean can't this be done at shut-down? What a waste of productivity.

We're all on XP Pro. The upgrade from 2000 is complete or has to be very close to it. I haven't a clue what's running on their servers.

Updates to what? To Windows, or Office, or your accounting software, or security software or what? Have you asked the I.T. people what the deal is?

 

[stash]

If they are using SMS and you leave your computers on when you go home, they could push the updates overnight.

I'm curious what updates they are sending out, since Windows security updates typically only come out once a month.

 

[boomerang]

The information presented to me in a small dialog box is minimal. A lot of them I believe are windows updates, but it appears they are renaming them with their own identification. Some are clearly updates to the MS Office suite. We're in the process of being updated to Office 2003.

I understand updates to windows only come out once a month, but I am told they need to do testing on updates and that they put them out after they have been proven to cause no issues.

Remember we just made the jump to XP. Evidently these things take a long time.

Asking the IT people is nearly useless. Out local people come to me for answers to problems - truly. And I have limited knowledge and am self-taught. I've asked help from both of you over the years. There's things I know, and way plenty I don't. The fact that they come to me for answers is almost scary to me.

We have Tivoli software running in the tray. Are they using that?

Our IT needs are provided by EDS if that tells you anything.

Edit: We are instructed to turn our computers off EVERY night when leaving.

 

[tehtank]

Very similar to what the company I work for does.
Different scripts and applications designed for your system(s) probably need to be updated every so often; it might not have to do with just official Windows updates.

Something I have been doing to prevent myself from having to wait most mornings is when I am about to leave for the day, I will restart the computer. When it starts getting updates I will hit the power button. It will not shut the system off right then, but it will run through all the updates until it gets to your login then shut down. While it may not take care of any updates released after hours, it might help lower the frequency of updates in the morning from the previous day.

I am also not 100% sure this will work with your system, as we are still on Windows 2000 =p

Other than that, I can only suggest restarting the machine when you leave for the day, and just leave it on over night. It will still be updated, but you'll be right at your login in the morning.

Hopefully that helps somewhat!

Edit: I also find the updating to be a good time to go get coffee or breakfast! =)

 

[boomerang]

Thanks for the reply, but I'd still like to know if this could be done at shut-down.

 

[juktar]

It depends on what is happening.

Windows updates can be done at logoff. However, it all depends on policy. If they are using Group Policy and updating application through software installation (in GPO) then it will happen before you log on. I tend not to think this is what is happening, becuase Tivoli can push software and updates as well. it may be a Tivoli thing, as I am not familiar with it. There are ways of doing everything that it does without spening all the gobs of money on that product.

The best solution is to just ask an IT person what is happening at boot time.

It is very rare that an IT person will not at least give some explanation of what is going on. I have found that most people who hate their IT departments, hate them becuase of lack of communication, not becuase they are jerks.

 

[boomerang]

I don't hate them, far from it. Any question I pose to them gets me a flip answer. Whether their work is "secret" and not for me to know, none of my business, or maybe they just don't know themselves, I don't know. I could only guess.

I can tell you with certainty that the way they do things where I work is not a policy set here. It's from much higher up. Maybe our local people don't know because their superiors feel they don't need to know. These types of attitudes run rampant where I work.

I've turned in a suggestion to install updates at shut-down. I was just wondering if there was any merit to the suggestion. They repeatedly encourage us to turn in suggestions here, but if the implementation takes any effort by anyone other than the suggestor, it usually dies a slow death. They expect my immediate supervisor to investigate fully the merits of the suggestion. This is waaaaay, waaaaaay out of our area of expertise.

I was just trying to determine whether it's something worth my fighting for to get implemented. If I'm talking out of my a$$, there's no sense spinning my wheels trying to make it happen.

 

[juktar]

Almost everything can be done at logoff. It just depends on if your company has the knowledge, desire, and money to do so.