Windows Update frustrations

These days I’m a Mac person, but I do still use Windows for work and also occasionally for other bits and pieces, such as games, Windows software or Windows development.

Now today I booted my Mac into Windows Vista under Bootcamp, started a video encoding process that would take between 2 and 3 hours.  Obviously I’m not going to sit in front of my computer watching it encode a movie file, that would just be a monumental waste of time, so I leave it running.

I come back 2 hours later to discover the computer in sleep mode, that’s fine if the encode has finished then it’ll usually go to sleep automatically.  I wake the computer to discover the OS X login screen.

I check the Windows logs to discover that Windows Update has decided not only to download and install new updates but decided that regardless of what the computer is doing at that current time it should reboot itself and loose any work I happened to be working on.

Now I understand for the default settings and need for Windows Update to auto download and install, it helps protect computers from users who don’t, and have no need, to know about what security patches are required.

What I object to is Windows deciding to reboot itself automatically.  I’ve seen the little prompt before saying click me to snooze the reboot, but I wasn’t at my PC to be able to see that prompt.

The Windows Update system should look at the system processes and open applications to determine whether it might be acceptable to display the prompt, if the processor is very busy, there might just be a chance, that something important is going on!  Alternatively, maybe Microsoft can provide a way to applications to send a flag saying ‘Busy here, move along please’ and then remove the flag when they exit.  If they are worried about Viruses setting that flag then maybe restrict it to digitally signed applications only?

I feel Microsoft are intentionally putting features in Windows to piss off IT professionals!  So two hours of wasted processor time thanks to Windows Update.