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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.
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...
Except, of course, make Windows 10 less annoying.
Making reboots less annoying? So Microsoft is taking on Hollywood now?
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
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.
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.
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.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
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.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Not surprised. Don't get me started on how many times I have needed to do a reboot immediately before a presentation and purposefully choose "restart (only)" and not "restart and update", only to watch it run updates anyway. Several times I have been late to present because the system was still running the updates I didnt tell it to install when the appointment time arrived.
How about:
(1) Giving users a choice of which updates to install. If a home user doesn't want UI changes crammed down their gullet, it should be their right. There should be a "security updates only" option for all users.
(2) Allowing users to schedule update times manually. Give a time window, but allow users to delay the update even in that window if they click a dialog.
Microsoft should stop abusing their customers.
I am amazed that people put up with this nonsense. That MIcrosoft can reboot your own computer essentially at will, at an instant of their choosing, is something that should be of grave concern to anybody even minimally concerned about data security and confidentiality.
I don't know about that.
I wish it could find a way to stop this site giving me a GPDRS popup (or whatever it's called) every two clicks or ten seconds, whichever comes first.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
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?
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
A lot of things about Windows 10 I honestly don't mind, but this is absolutely ridiculous. Never-mind that I may leave stuff open and want to come back to it without interruption the next day. Sometimes I have a long-running video encode or compute job (i.e. multiple days). I don't need Windows randomly deciding to reboot and throw away my progress.
Why do we need machine learning for this? Just give users the option to decide when they want to reboot.
Anyway, to those who haven't figured it out yet, there's an easy way to stop this behavior.
Visit C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator.
Delete the file named "Reboot". This is the scheduled task that actually fires off the reboot after an update.
Create a folder in the same place named "Reboot". This prevents Windows from automatically re-creating the file that you deleted.
Done.