Computers, mobile phones and other devices need to be regularly updated to add features, fix bugs and close security issues that could be exploited by bad actors, and some updates to important system components require you to restart your computer to fully install them.
This is not necessarily bad, by itself, but different parts of a computer are updated on a monthly, weekly and sometimes daily basis. During particularly busy periods, Patch Tuesday is every day.
When you add up all of these updates, it can be frustrating for end users to have to deal with prompts to update, and whilst an IT support team can help navigate them through the process, urgent updates can be disruptive to work.
To see if there is anything that can be done about it, it is important to understand why they happen, what software engineers are doing to make it less frustrating and what your tech support team can do to help as well.
Why Are You Asked To Restart Your Computer After An Update?
Software updates change the code of the applications, operating system and other programs running on your computer, but they cannot change any code that is currently in use.
The reason for this is the same reason why, when you are building a piece of furniture or following a recipe, you cannot suddenly add an instruction or change what has already been done without getting awfully confused. This confusion typically leads to software crashes.
This means that if, for example, Microsoft Office wanted to update, it would prompt you to close it so it could change everything it needed to and start again, with the prompt enabling you to save your work first.
However, system software such as operating systems, drivers, system management tools and other foundational programs cannot usually be turned on and off without making a computer unstable.
What modern OSes do instead is update everything that they can safely, before queuing up the rest of the update to take place after the system shuts down but before it powers off, when it boots up but before the operating system turns on again, or both.
Do You Always Have To Restart Your Computer After Every Update?
Thankfully, not every update requires you to restart your computer, and software engineers are increasingly trying to find ways to ensure fewer and fewer updates require restarts by developing OSes as a series of modules that can be safely loaded and unloaded without causing instability.
Anything that is not system-critical does not require a restart of the whole computer, which relieves some of the frustration previously felt by computer users who had to spend a good chunk of each morning and late afternoon restarting to install updates.
The main exceptions to this are updates relating to the kernel, the central heart of the OS, which loads everything else. Because it is so fundamentally important, any updates need to be installed after it has been unloaded.
Unfortunately, this means that most critical security updates, which tend to affect the kernel because it is in charge of managing memory and hard disks, necessitate a restart.
After all, if the computer is not restarted, the update is not fully installed, which means your computer is vulnerable to potential exploits until it is.
These updates are so urgent that the computer will often pester users with notifications or even automatically restart for them following the expiration of a timer.
Is It Possible To Make Updating Less Frustrating?
There are ways to mitigate the frustration of a software update, and thankfully, software publishers are aware of the frustration of constant updates and installations and have made it less annoying.
The main development in this regard is the integration of update centres and background installation; it is possible for tech support staff to manage updates on a server remotely and make it so an end user does not have to think too much about rudimentary, everyday updates.
As well as this, most software packages try to schedule all of their updates at roughly the same time, not only giving users the ability to plan ahead, but also allowing for updates to be queued up and fully installed in a single restart.
Alongside this, far fewer updates need restarts; graphics drivers previously required a restart, but thanks to more sophisticated internal design, graphics drivers can be updated whilst the card is in use, often without you noticing.
Another alternative, something that has not been integrated into Windows but is seen with other business OSes such as Linux, is setting up the system in such a way that critical files can be updated without needing a reboot.
Most Linux distributions still need reboots, particularly if you are switching to a new kernel or have installed major system updates, but they are less critical, and you will typically not be constantly reminded to restart.