March 26, 2008 at 8:55 am
I find the "restart now/later" reminders so annoying that I've gotten into the habit of turning off the automatic updates service after installing updates. No service, no reminders.
March 26, 2008 at 9:07 am
richardd (3/26/2008)
Thankfully, this has been fixed in Vista - the reminder message is now a balloon-tip from the system tray.If you have 2000 SP3 or XP SP1 or higher, you can change the default 10 minute window via Group Policy. Look under Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update for the policy called "Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations".
Hmm - that's interesting, because that's NOT what I'm getting out of Vista. I'm getting the exact opposite. The last few times, it's asked me 2-3 times, and then - it stopped asking and just rebooted. No prompt, no warning, just "we're now rebooting..." or something to that nature. (of course followed by multiple WTF's and a scrambling to save all open stuff....)
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
March 26, 2008 at 9:11 am
As a developer, I know how easily the mind's scope can be narrowed to just the single application that I'm working on. That still isn't an excuse to produce an annoying product. Nobody benefits when you do.
Almost as annoying are the "captioned balloon" or "bubble" messages that Windows continually floats out to you. I've found the easiest way to deal with them is with the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc). Open that with the Run command and navigate to User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Start Menu and Task Bar. There are 3 settings there including (in Vista) "Turn off all balloon notifications", that you can set.
My apologies to whomever I first got this tip from. I've long forgotten the source.
March 26, 2008 at 9:57 am
Seriously? 'People' (Citizens of the USA and other countries) don't reboot their PC's on a daily basis!
This is Windows! (Kick the unlucky person into the big pit!) It's applications have all of sorts of memory leaks and bad coding - rebooting is mandatory on a regular basis.
When i'm not using my PC its switched off period.
'Stand-By (mode) for global warming' doh!
--Shaun
Hiding under a desk from SSIS Implemenation Work :crazy:
March 26, 2008 at 9:59 am
I don't like "Install Updates and Shutdown" when shutting down the computer. You need to go somewhere and instead you have to wait 10 min. I know you can change to just Shutdown, but if you don't watch closely when shutting down, you will be stuck with the updates.
Regards,Yelena Varsha
March 26, 2008 at 11:32 am
My PC goes into energy saving mode, but I reboot probably less than once a month. XP, even 2000 before it, have been extremely stable. If you're not getting that kind of uptime, you probably have specific applications leaking. Many of the ones I've been using for years, Office, SQL, a few utilities, run fine with no issues for months.
I especially hate the updates on shutdown. That can be a very annoying experience.
March 26, 2008 at 11:41 am
Hear! Hear!
Even worse is working for a big corporation that has an entire department dedicated to this sort of thing, and remotely forces reboots. I frequently got a four hour countdown window that wouldn't let me postpone the reboot of my machine. Think four hours is generous? Sure, but when the notice comes less than two hours into a working day, you're guaranteed a reboot in the middle of the day! Make the clock expire sometime after 8:00 PM and happier users result.
Still worse - I transferred to another facility, where the local admins started the reboot clock about the same time of day, but only gave 90 minutes!
Now I work for a nice, small company (with an international footprint, nonetheless) and have a much higher degree of control. Fresh air, indeed.
Now if Redmond will get a clue about this stuff...
Will
But boss, why must the urgent always take precedence over the important?
March 26, 2008 at 11:52 am
Matt Miller (3/26/2008)
richardd (3/26/2008)
Thankfully, this has been fixed in Vista - the reminder message is now a balloon-tip from the system tray.If you have 2000 SP3 or XP SP1 or higher, you can change the default 10 minute window via Group Policy. Look under Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update for the policy called "Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations".
Hmm - that's interesting, because that's NOT what I'm getting out of Vista. I'm getting the exact opposite. The last few times, it's asked me 2-3 times, and then - it stopped asking and just rebooted. No prompt, no warning, just "we're now rebooting..." or something to that nature. (of course followed by multiple WTF's and a scrambling to save all open stuff....)
I've been using Vista for almost 2 years (I beta tested before it RTMed), and I seem to remember early on having a problem like that, but I think I just changed a setting. I know I don't have that problem any more. Take a look on MSDN, there's probably an article about it somewhere.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
March 26, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Shaun McGuile (3/26/2008)
Seriously? 'People' (Citizens of the USA and other countries) don't reboot their PC's on a daily basis!This is Windows! (Kick the unlucky person into the big pit!) It's applications have all of sorts of memory leaks and bad coding - rebooting is mandatory on a regular basis.
When i'm not using my PC its switched off period.
'Stand-By (mode) for global warming' doh!
--Shaun
I keep hearing this kind of thing, mostly from Linux fanatics, but I don't understand it. True, with Windows 3.1, you had to reboot all the darn time. But since then, it's been more rare than otherwise, at least for me. The last reboot I did on my computer at home was when the power went out for a few hours during a thunderstorm that knocked down the power lines. No lights, no fridge, no heating, and no PC.
On the other hand, I like the 300 reference! 🙂
And, since the sun apparently "shut off" a few years ago (check out the data on the sunspot activity and the possible connections between that and prior ice ages - this is not a conspiracy theory, it's straight up astrophysics and climatology), I'm not too worried about my PC causing global warming. (Just to keep things lively in here.)
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/astro/sunspots.php
http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=1
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/new-solar-cycle-24-goalpost-established/
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
March 26, 2008 at 12:24 pm
By the way, I'm still waiting to hear the "inconvenient answer" to why Mars' icecaps are melting at the same rate of speed as ours....
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html
Now - that's what I call an "inconvenient observation". Sure gets in the way of jumping in your jumbo JetStream to run around the country telling OTHERS to conserve energy....:crying::blush:
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
March 27, 2008 at 8:20 am
Pet Peeve on...
Would it be difficult for MS to give the option whether or not to allow other windows to grab context from the current one?
Back in the day on X-windows, the gui mgr gave that option, and it was wonderful. I've not used Linux, so I do not know if those gui frontends have that option.
Every time a window grabs context from me, I grumble at MS for not at least giving me the option to allow it or not.
Pet Peeve off
jg
March 27, 2008 at 8:43 am
john g (3/27/2008)
Pet Peeve on...Would it be difficult for MS to give the option whether or not to allow other windows to grab context from the current one?
Back in the day on X-windows, the gui mgr gave that option, and it was wonderful. I've not used Linux, so I do not know if those gui frontends have that option.
Every time a window grabs context from me, I grumble at MS for not at least giving me the option to allow it or not.
Pet Peeve off
jg
That would be nice.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
March 27, 2008 at 10:43 am
I continually have similar problem with Outlook reminders, which I use extensively. I'll be typing, and one will pop up, grab the keyboard focus, and sure as anything my next character typed will be a "D" which will Dismiss the reminder. Then I have to go searching in my calendar to see what I missed.
At home I use an alternative reminder program called CalendarScope which I can recommend. It's almost like the Outlook calendar, except its popups play nice and don't grab the focus.
March 28, 2008 at 5:25 am
john g (3/27/2008)
Pet Peeve on...Would it be difficult for MS to give the option whether or not to allow other windows to grab context from the current one?
Back in the day on X-windows, the gui mgr gave that option, and it was wonderful. I've not used Linux, so I do not know if those gui frontends have that option.
Every time a window grabs context from me, I grumble at MS for not at least giving me the option to allow it or not.
Pet Peeve off
jg
Basically, Linux still uses the X Window System. So, yes, you can control whether applications are allowed to grab focus (as it's called).
In addition, you have the choice of a whole slew of window managers with various capabilities (and corresponding resource footprints) hence you have the full range of choice from a fully featured window manager with themes, virtual desktops, etc down to a basic "here's a box with a close button which will display what the application asked for"!
<Pet Peeve>
Ah, but Microsoft moved the window manager into the kernel because it wasn't fast enough... so you can't just start a different one because it's not a user process!
And, of course, the server has to have a window system too, because it's using the same kernel, so you have to make sure the operators don't select a CPU intensive screensaver and impact performance...
</Pet Peeve>
Maybe in Windows 7...
Derek
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