Friday, May 31, 2013

A Feature Windows Needs

Here's something I'd love to see in Windows: a default setting for programs that are preventing Windows from shutting down.

It never fails, Windows starts running like crap, and you go to reboot it. Or, Windows Update tells you you have to reboot to finish installing updates. You relent, and tell Windows to go ahead and reboot like it's still Windows ME and can't stay up for 2 hours.

Then you walk away, and come back to find that some programs are preventing Windows from rebooting. Would you like to force them down? Are you sure? Are you really sure? Yes, yes, and yes.

But it's almost always the same programs that are keeping Windows from rebooting: Sticky Notes, Windows Explorer, and Windows Update. Every time.

So why can't we just tell Windows "Look, if Sticky Notes is stopping Windows from a reboot so I can get back to work, just kill it without asking me. Likewise for Windows Explorer and Windows Update."

Come on, Microsoft, work with us. What are the odds that killing Sticky Notes without a user's prompt will cause harm? Most of us just run it the first time and forget about it anyway. We're like "Hey! Apple had that more than a decade ago! Welcome to the party, Windows"

No comments: