Thanks for your feedback. Responses inline.
Dale
"PNutts" wrote:
> I'm curious. If rebooting is an issue, why install the updates at a time when
> a reboot wasn't convenient? If the update requires a reboot, you will most
> likely not receive the benefit of that update until the reboot so installing
> without planning a reboot soon is puzzling.
Why not install them now? It is never clear what updates will require a
reboot and which ones will not. The update description in WSUS states that
the update may require you to restart your system. It doesn't say will
require. It is pretty common to have some PCs not require a reboot for an
update that does require a reboot on other PCs.
In either case, the update needs to be "installed" or at least prepared for
install on the next reboot - whether I reboot now or later. Besides, I
expect to get a notification about the reboot. I just don't expect that
notification to capture keystrokes intended for another program.
There is not even anything in the notification that implies a shortcut key -
no underline or other indication. And oddly, the shortcut key that triggers
the Reboot Now button is the N key, of all things.
>
> Also, you've wandered into an area that I feel has high risk. Microsoft has
> put a lot of effort into allowing you control of the installations of updates
> and it appears rock solid.
It's not exactly rock solid; hence the need for this newsgroup. It is,
though, mostly reliable in my experience.
>However, once you've done that you are moved into
> a secondary subsystem who's responsiblity is to nag you to reboot and/or
> reboot for you. I can't vouch for the stability of that subsystem, but you've
> (unfortunately) discovered that you may have less control over that subsystem
> than the first.
My main point is simply that those windows should not have shortcut keys on
the reboot button. But then, that issue exists in Vista in general, where
system critical steps like rebooting or shutting down have been changed to
single-click and unstoppable operations.
>It may not be much of a solution and definitely no comfort at
> this point, but my over simplification of the scenario and to reduce my
> personal head-banging-against-the-wall would be to avoid the "I'm here to
> automatically reboot you" subsystem altogether if my data integrity relied on
> no reboots.
>
> Notice I've avoided the debate of shutting down virtual PC's is really a
> "chore" when done to prevent data loss, and also avoided the topic of
> backups. 
Hopefully the data loss is recoverable.
The data loss was recoverable. All my PCs are backed up and have System
Restore. What was lost was a couple hours work done in that session. Also,
a couple of the PCs had programs that would not run after the forced shutdown
- programs that were running when the shutdown occurred. After
re-installation did not fix the issues, rather than troubleshoot further, I
simply restored a system checkpoint and all was good. Still, it was a few
more hours lost resolving that.
>
> "Dale" wrote:
>
> > Last night, I installed several updates on my Vista X64 Ultimate workstation.
> > Afterwards, Windows Update wanted to do a reboot. I closed the reboot
> > window without rebooting. I don't remember exactly the options that were
> > there, most likely something abuot prompting me later.
> >
> > Because this workstation runs about 8 Virtual PCs, rebooting is a chore. I
> > have to make sure that all the Virtual PCs are shut down or not doing
> > anything where data will be lost.
> >
> > I was typing in one of the virtual machines last night when, out of the
> > corner of my eye, I saw this yellow and white flash that I recognized as the
> > reboot reminder popped up and immediately disappeared. Suddenly my
> > workstation was rebooting. Whatever I was typing in the virtual machine had
> > hit the keystrokes that the reboot reminder was looking for to execute the
> > reboot.
> >
> > These reboot windows definitely should not have shortcut keys. Rebooting my
> > Vista workstation without properly shutting down the virtual PCs has caused
> > significant data loss.
> >
> > Dale
Linear Mode
