[SOLVED] Why doesn't applying Windows updates finish off configuration?

[patrowles2]

When notified, I'll usually install Windows updates as I power off for the night by selecting 'Install updates and shut down'. Sometimes when I next power up, there'll be a notification and a short-ish delay while 'configuration' is carried out.

It's not a big deal, but I can't help wondering why this has to be done on next power up, instead of during the update process. If a restart is required for the config bit, why doesn't the update process apply the updates, restart the PC (instead of shutting down), apply the config, and then shut down?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Because you are telling it not to. And because "shutting down" is a procedure that MOST people these days have left reserved for when they NEED to power off as when cleaning or replacing hardware, and not an everyday part of their routine. The majority of systems these days don't get shut down after each session or at the end of each day. Mostly they are simply put to sleep.

If you want the updates to be applied immediately so that you don't have to deal with it when you start up the next time, then simply don't shut down when doing updates and instead, restart, and then when it is done, shut down.

Or, configure your system to sleep after 15 or 20 minutes of inactivity, restart the system and then leave it. It should apply updates, restart and then put itself to sleep until you return the next time.

Not ever going to happen the way you would like for it to, whether it makes some sense or not.

 

[patrowles2]

Appreciate the reply, but I don't understand how I'm "telling it not to" (if you mean, that's why it doesn't do the config as well as the updates in one operation). A Windows installation will restart a PC several times and leave it ready to use when it's done, so I wondered why updates didn't do the same.

It's not that I want the updates to be applied immediately, and I don't sit tapping my watch impatiently during the config; it was just one of those idle curiosities about why something works the way it does.

 

[USAFRet]

Because a lot of Updates change/replace critical files.
They can't be changed while the system is running.

So, Update and Shut down replaces these files.
On the next startup, the system has to make some internal config changes to mesh with these new files.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Right, but he's asking why it doesn't make its changes up to 30%, then restart, make the rest of it's changes, up to 100%, then boot Windows and then shut back down, automatically. And that, is not going to ever be something MS makes into a priority or even likely, an option.

And, by "telling it to", what I mean is when you say "shut down", you are telling it that you are ok with it doing things exactly the way it is supposed to do it when updating during the shut down process. If you did not select the "update and shut down" it would not do it that. If you ran your updates, then restarted the system, and then shut down, this would be a moot question. That is what most people do and those that don't simply deal with the idea that upon the next cold boot they are going to have to wait a bit while the process completes.

There just isn't any other answers for you on this. It is, what it is.