Sunday, July 23, 2006

Giving Windows the (re)boot

Microsoft Windows is an energy-sapper. The world's (supposedly) most popular PC operating system is riddled with increasing ways of making you tear your hair out by the roots. I am constantly amazed by people who proclaim their love for this program because it "looks better" than other options. To these people, I can only recommend that they install Linux and see for themselves.

My pet Microsoft peeve, for the moment at least, is the need for constant reboots after installing the smallest utilities. After seven (and some) years of maintaining Linux machines, I find it highly irritating that Windows still has not found a way around this. There has to be a way of updating the registry, etc. without having to shut down everything else you are doing.

The reboot headache is not one that you encounter once in several months either. Thanks to the various auto-update routines floating around, one is required to start from a clean slate on numerous occassions. However, I would at least expect to be given the chance to decide when to reboot the machine after a software update.

But sorry. No dice! Instead, I get a constant stream of "reminders" every few minutes that it is time to reboot. I can either drop whatever I am doing and bow to my Microsoft masters, or endure a vexing time clicking "Cancel" or "Remind me Later". Why not add a simple option to "Remind me When the Sun Explodes"?!!

Here is a potential marketing gimmick for Microsoft to consider: ship extra memory with every new Windows release, so that the reboots become faster. This will help maintain productivity at current levels, to compensate for the time we spend twiddling our thumbs while Windows recharges its creaking Registry. At least, we will not be running backwards every time a bug-riddled piece of code is installed and frequently updated.

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