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Hello,

I guess it was a slow day at CBS Interactive's CNet web site, or perhaps they are not very familiar with using Windows. This behavior can easily be disabled by a simple registry tweak. Here's a .REG file which does exactly that:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers"=dword:00000001

If you would rather script it using a .CMD file, that's easy enough, too. You can even do it in one line:

REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU /v NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Or, for the PowerShell-inclined, here's a three-line version:

New-Item HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
New-Item HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
Set-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU -Name "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers" -Value 1 -Type DWord

As always, you are responsible for your computer and should make a backup before making any changes to it.

Yes, Windows can be difficult to use at times, and the learning curve can be quite high. But these days that's pretty true of any operating system if you're coming to it for the first time. You can find the answers to a lot of questions by searching the web, and in case you can't (or you still have questions), you can go to a web site with an active Windows user forum like BleepingComputer. GeeksToGo, Neowin, Scot's Newsletter,Sysnative, WindowsForums or even Microsoft's own Microsoft Answers forum and someone will help you. Those are just a few off the top of my head, there are plenty of others, although you should probably avoid CBS Interactive's own CNet forums.

Regards

Aryeh Goretsky

Who cares about systemd anyway? Slackware user here...

The "perhaps less Unix like" part is funny:
http://forums.scotsnewsletter....

I know this is Slashdot, and we all really, really want to believe that MS is the Titanic, but its not. Since no one has wanted to believe me in other threads when I have pointed out the large similarities (both in sales and public attitudes) between XP and Vista during their respective first years, I decided to do some digging this time. Here is an excerpt from an article written in 2002, when XP was almost exactly the same age that Vista is now.

So, you think Windows XP is a flop? Not according to Microsoft. It says Windows XP is the fastest-selling version of Windows ever, with 32 million copies sold to date. Of course, that figure includes both OEM PC maker sales (probably something like 90 percent of the total) and retail sales. Many people buying new PCs probably would have bought Windows 98 if they'd had a choice. Most PC makers do offer a choice: Windows XP Pro or Windows XP Home. And, of course, both versions are included in the count.

The 32 million sales number also includes corporate sales of Windows XP, although by most accounts, corporations have not adopted XP in droves. But it's possible they might do so beginning next year. Larger companies that have volume licensing arrangements with Microsoft don't have to deal with product activation. And you can bet they don't have to pay $399 for a full version of Windows XP Pro either. It's consumers who are taking it on the chin with Windows XP.

But even in a year when PC sales are off, Windows XP is doing quite well. The new Windows sold 17 million copies through the 2001 holiday season -- the biggest selling season of the year. Since then it's sold another 15 million copies. And that's the strongest indicator it's doing well. The second quarter of the year is traditionally slow for PC and operating system sales. Yet XP is doing well. But that doesn't really surprise me.

So to summarize, even if you don't remember it, XP was not always the golden boy; many people hated it when it was young; in fact many of the comments I read about Vista parrot those about XP five years ago. Vista's sales are not scaring MS because Vista's sales are pretty close to what XP sold during its first year.

Very few people want Vista, but very few wanted XP either. The only thing that has changed in the last five years is that OEMs now have more leverage; this doesn't help Vista, but its not going to kill it either.

I've seen the infamous thread in question. I think your real problem is that you should have tried some other place to answer your question.

It's a GRUB error so you should start with the folks who make GRUB.
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel

Google turns up some useful links as well:

http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-grub@gnu.org/msg10 991.html
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread .php?t=112412
http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showto pic=12845
http://www.webservertalk.com/archive291-2006-7-157 9685.html

I know the Ubuntu board should have helped with the problem, but the people who participate in that board are likely to be just as new to Ubuntu as you are. In these so called easy to use distros, you'll see this problem a lot. I have a similar problem with fedoraforum.org. Most of my questions go unanswered, get answered wrongly, or it feels like I'm talking to a Comcast customer support script reader. This is because most of the users are not Linux gurus, but inexperienced people. There's nothing you can do about this except look for help else where and if you find the solution post it back to help educated them.

http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/ (the "All Things Linux" section mostly, but the others are useful too) – not only do I find it useful myself, but I've also recommended it to a couple of my own users the few times I couldn't figure something out myself. Speaking of which, I'd say if your distribution has its own forums, check there too – not sure if SuSE runs any forums, but if you want to switch to Ultima Linux, we'll be more than happy to welcome you in ;-)

• Opera has none of these problems. So, the quote from the Mozillazine blog shown below, although it is typical, is not supported by the facts.
  
  
• Whatever causes the CPU hogging bug is definitely associated with extreme memory use. No doubt there are leaks, but this is not a leak, since it is not necessarily associated with greater use of Firefox.
  
  
• Users often report that just leaving Firefox open overnight causes CPU hogging and extreme memory use.
  
  
• The problems are the same in Mozilla browser.
  
  
• It's good to test Firefox with a laptop in a quiet environment. When you hear the laptop fan begin to run while there is no activity, you know Firefox has begun to suck CPU cycles.
  
  
• Putting a computer into standby or hibernation often makes the CPU hogging bug much worse. That's why Firefox users sometimes just leave their computers on.
  
  
• When a computer takes a long, long time to start from standby, you know Firefox is taking CPU cycles. What about coming out of standby makes Firefox unstable? No other program has that problem.
  
  

1. Being a scientist -- Often the most difficult programming is easier than the most difficult debugging. Often debugging requires creative scientific thinking. First, it is necessary to gather information. Second, make a theory that fits the facts. Third, design an experiment that tests the theory. Fourth, perform that experiment and analyze the results. Fifth, using the information that was learned, design a new theory, and repeat the steps above. The information that has been provided about Firefox instability is plenty to begin making theories.
2. Skill in social interaction -- Often the social interaction necessary to understanding what is needed and wanted is more difficult than any coding challenge. Social skills can be learned, and are part of being a good programmer.
3. Designing the user interface -- Only someone who has habits of caring for others can have the necessary detailed insight and creativity to discover how to do everything possible for the user.

Instead there are excuses:

Mozilla Top 12 Excuses

Top 12 things Firefox and Mozilla developers say about those who report difficult bugs, collected during the last 3 years:

1. Maybe this bug is fixed in the nightly build.
2. Yes, this bug exists, but other things are more important.
3. No one has posted a TalkBack report. [If they had read the bug report, they would know that there is never a TalkBack report, because the bug crashes TalkBack, too, or a TalkBack report is not generated.]
4. If you would just give us more information, we would fix this bug.
5. This bug report is a composite of other bugs, so this bug report is invalid. [The other bugs aren't specified.]
6. You are using Firefox in a way that would cras

1. Skill in social interaction -- Often the social interaction necessary to understanding what is needed and wanted is more difficult than any coding challenge. Social skills can be learned, and are part of being a good programmer.
   
   
2. Being a scientist -- Often the most difficult programming is easier than the most difficult debugging. Often debugging requires creative scientific thinking. First, it is necessary to gather information. Second, make a theory that fits the facts. Third, design an experiment that tests the theory. Fourth, perform that experiment and analyze the results. Fifth, using the information that was learned, design a new theory, and repeat the steps above.
   
   
3. Designing the user interface -- Only someone who has habits of caring for others can have the necessary detailed insight and creativity to discover how to do everything possible for the user.

1. Maybe this bug is fixed in the nightly build.
2. Yes, this bug exists, but other things are more important.
3. No one has posted a TalkBack report. (If they had read the bug report, they would know that there is never a TalkBack report, because the bug crashes TalkBack, too, or a TalkBack report is not generated.)
4. If you would just give us more information, we would fix this bug.
5. This bug report is a composite of other bugs, so this bug report is invalid. (The other bugs aren't specified.)
6. You are using Firefox in a way that would crash any software. (But the same use does not crash Opera.)
7. I don't like the way you worded your report. (So, I didn't read it or think about it.)
8. You should run a debugger and find what causes this problem yourself. (Then when you have done most of the work, tell us what causes the problem, and we may fix it.)
9. Many bugs that are filed aren't important to 99.99% of the users.
10. If you are saying bad things about Mozilla and Firefox, you must be trolling. (They say this even though Firefox and Mozilla instability is beginning to be reported in media such as Information Week.)

>It's an ugly fact, but Firefox is the most unstable program in common use.

This poster is absolutely correct. Firefox 1.5 has caused my system to crash more times than I can count. Then I saw this article in Scott's newsletter that confirmed it wasn't just me:

http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/75.htm#ff15

My "solution" was to go back to 1.0.7, and use IE when I have to. But I am concerned about the lack of responsiveness of the Mozilla team that Scott's newsletter and the poster mention. I have seen the problems on two completely different machines, one running Win98SE and one running WinXP professional on completely different hardware. I have not had problems under Linux, but before all the slashdotters pile on saying it's just Windows, let me say that the two Windows systems are otherwise quite stable. This is discouraging for me because I would like to leave IE behind as soon as possible.

I'm a Slackware user myself (I started with Red Hat last year, but switched over soon after, mainly because of this forum ;-) ... glad to hear that Mr. Volkerding is back in action, I was starting to worry that Slackware would disappear forever!! *PHEW*