Windows 10 To Use Machine Learning in Latest Attempt To Make Reboots Less Annoying (arstechnica.com)

The next semi-annual update to Windows 10 will use machine learning models to make automatic rebooting for updates a bit less annoying. From a report: Currently, Windows will detect if you're away from your system (mouse and keyboard idle and not playing video or anything comparable) and perform its reboots during those idle moments. However, at the moment, the system doesn't distinguish between briefly stepping away from the machine to grab a cup of coffee and being away for hours because you've left the office or gone to bed. This has provoked some amount of complaining due to the updates interrupting work. With the new predictive system, Windows will try to distinguish between these two cases, and it will avoid the update if the absence is expected to be short.

Comments

How about not blowing away work?

[Drethon]

What if I've left something open that I don't want to lose and leave it open for the night or keep it running overnight while not logged in? Yeah I know, save before you leave the machine for the former, but there are times I don't want to save changes yet and am just too stubborn to save to a temporary file and silly me expects a machine to continue running if I don't tell it to shut down...

Re:How about not blowing away work?

[Quirkz]

Not saving is always self-destructive behavior. There's no excuse for that. Bluescreens are rarer than they used to be, but they still happen. Power outages, bumped cables, other people in the house, who knows. Just save. Even if it's a temp thing.

But there's plenty of other valid reasons for being in the middle of something and not wanting it interrupted. Web pages you're reading, stuff that's saved but open as a to-do reminder, or just the delay of the reboot/login/relaunch everything process, which isn't always ideal.

The system should ask. Always. If it's urgent, it should get more demanding, but it should still always ask.

Re:How about not blowing away work?

[Joce640k]

Couldn't they, ummmm.... ask the user?

Re:How about not blowing away work?

[r_naked]

What if I've left something open that I don't want to lose and leave it open for the night or keep it running overnight while not logged in? Yeah I know, save before you leave the machine for the former, but there are times I don't want to save changes yet and am just too stubborn to save to a temporary file and silly me expects a machine to continue running if I don't tell it to shut down...

It baffles me how people tolerate their OS doing things they don't want it to. If my OS just up and decided now was a good time to reboot, I would ditch that OS in a heartbeat.

This is not a Windows bashing or Linux advocacy post, this is just my opinion on how ANY OS should work.

I don't know, maybe you can turn that option off in Windows. I haven't used Windows since 7, and I know I could back then. Has MS removed that from Win 10?

-- Brian

Re:How about not blowing away work?

[infolation]

It's Machine Learnings. So...

step one: gather information about everything the user does on the computer
step two: broadcast that information back to MS HQ (because the ML happens in the 'cloud')
step three: if anyone's still annoyed, blame the lack of ML input data, and increase step one.

Re:How about not blowing away work?

[Anonymous Coward]

Many things aren't saveable, e.g. private browsing sessions, and debug state.

Re:How about not blowing away work?

[Bert64]

It depends on your usage patterns...
As a long time unix user in a first world country with reliable power (and also having a ups just incase), i'm used to just leaving stuff running and expecting it to still be there whenever i get back to it. Recently i left my desktop at home running a slow ddrescue operation against a corrupt disk for several weeks while i was away, and it was still happily chugging along when i returned.
I'm also used to leaving all my apps running in the background spread across multiple virtual workspaces, and having to restart everything and get it back where i want it is extremely annoying.

If i found one of my systems to have rebooted itself, and could not account for the outage (eg recorded loss of power on the ups) i would assume the system was hacked.

Re:How about not blowing away work?

[johnw]

I would echo the same sentiment. There's never an excuse for your OS to re-boot your machine without your explicit permission. Everyone else manages to do this properly - why can't Microsoft manage it?

On the abuse front, there's been another story recently about the progress of ReactOS, with a lot of people commenting on how 1990s the interface looks. The thing is - it's infinitely superior to the current Windows 10 interface. Clean, comprehensible, compact.

I've spent some time over the last couple of days trying to assist an 81 year-old lady who is utterly bamboozled by here Windows 10 computer. It baffles me too. So much usability and clarity has been sacrificed in the move to Windows 10, all in the name of the latest fashion. She wants her old computer back, but alas it seems to be broken.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s a lot of work went into trying to create totally consistent user experiences. Now the drive seems to be to move in the opposite direction, and users are paying the price.

Machine learning can do anything

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Except, of course, make Windows 10 less annoying.

Windows 10 updates are a plauge

[sinij]

I really don't understand why you need to create policy to prevent Windows updates during working hours. There is absolutely nothing so urgent in these updates that cannot wait until I log off. Microsoft insisting that these updates pushed out on their schedule and not on user's schedule is ultimate hubris.

I have a better solution

[Rick Schumann]

Just don't make ANY reboots 'automatic', let the user decide when that happens and trigger it manually.

Or, you know, you could dump Microsoft entirely and get Linux, and take back control over your hardware.

Chuckle

[drinkypoo]

The next semi-annual update to Windows 10 will use machine learning models to make

...spying on users more effective.

The only things Microsoft has to do to make reboots less annoying is 1) ask first and 2) let you postpone the reboot indefinitely. They don't need machine intelligence, they need human intelligence. Only, let's face it, they're not even trying to give the users what they want any more, since that includes not being spied upon.

Want Happier Customers? Stop Forced Reboots.

[mykepredko]

Isn't the most obvious solution to the problem is to have stable software that doesn't require reboots when an update is provided.

I can see needing updates for AV tools (ie Windows Defender) which should be updating signature databases as well as maybe Edge updates which would require the browser to end and restart. If other aspects of the software requires updating, there should be approaches to allow it without causing a reboot.

I've always found Microsoft's update process to be quite annoying with what seems to be two out of every three updates resulting in a reboot. Ubuntu, on the other hand, seems to require a reboot once every 5-10 times.

I think Microsoft has grown too accustomed to accepting reboots after updates and maybe looking at it from a different perspective (ie Reboots are bad, not something we need machine learning to schedule) would be a win-win.

Re:40 Minutes!

[MachineShedFred]

Or there's this idea:

"Hey, there's updates to apply. Is now good, or please tell me when it would be best for you (ask again in 1 hour) (ask again in 3 hours) (ask again in 6 hours) (ask again tomorrow)"

Why is "machine learning" needed, unless the learning just involves asking the fucking user?