One Reboot to bring them all and in the Windows bind them?

October 3, 2007 10:02 AM

I'm getting a new PC (with XP) and will be installing a whole bunch of things right quick. Some of them will want me to reboot. Must I reboot with each install or can I do it once after all the installs?

This post makes sense, and I do have WhyReboot, but I suspect that several of the reboot requests will be legitimate.

posted by mookieproof to computers & internet (9 comments total)

You probably should reboot, but a lot of those reboot requests will be to unload some dll or just delete a folder. These can be done at once at boot time. Youre taking a chance doing what you are diong, but its probably not a big chance. If you go this route, you should reboot after any big app install like office or video games. Definitely reboot after any system or security patch.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:11 AM on October 3, 2007

Also, visit windows update first and it will auto install Windows Installer 3.1. With the current version of windows installer you probably wont have to reboot very often anyway. If you are using an old version of installer you'll get a lot more reboot requests.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:12 AM on October 3, 2007

When you're just installing software, I wouldn't worry about it. But when it comes to installing drivers: definitely reboot.

See, that way, if you have problems, you'll know where they stem from. If you install a bunch of drivers and your computer no longer boots (happened to me on Saturday! True story!), then you'll have no idea which one is the problem, and you'll have to redo them all anyway. Possibly needing to do a fresh OS install while you're at it.
posted by jaded at 10:36 AM on October 3, 2007

I regularly reinstall Windows, and I only reboot (during the install process, which includes Windows, the necessary drivers and other assort apps) when forced to - ie, only during the Windows install routines.

That said, I use the same apps and driver versions all the time, so I know I'm safe to do it.
posted by Solomon at 10:44 AM on October 3, 2007

I never, ever reboot while installing software. At worst, you try the program and it doesn't work yet, so then you do reboot.
posted by signal at 10:45 AM on October 3, 2007

Yeah, don't reboot. Most of the programs are stupid and conservative. The main place I've been bitten is when some stupid piece of software wants to install itself, reboot, then upgrade itself. (Yes, I'm talking to you, Adobe Acrobat). Even then it's not that big a deal.

Low level hardware drivers, yeah, reboot for those. Antivirus programs too. Otherwise forget it.
posted by Nelson at 10:54 AM on October 3, 2007

It depends on whether the softwares you're installing are related: I have had many experiences setting up new PCs with several Adobe products at once (Acrobat, Framemaker, Distiller) and I found that Adobe got confused because both Acrobat and Framemaker both install their own copies of Distiller as part of the package, so some install-then-uninstalls-then-installs may be involved. Long-story-short: If more than one is from the same product line, maybe you should reboot each time.
posted by Lord Kinbote at 11:01 AM on October 3, 2007

Most of the time, programs that require a reboot after install have written something to your registry or startup files that will not take effect until after the reboot.

Usually it is something stupid like telling windows to launch their tray icon on startup, which doesn't really affect the way the application runs. Sometimes, the application installs a Windows Service (appears as svchost.exe in task manager), which is set to run automatically on startup.

If something doesn't work and you really don't want to reboot, go to start>run and type msconfig. That will show you all the settings that Windows goes through during startup or reboot. If you see something unchecked, check it and enable it.
posted by tjvis at 12:23 PM on October 3, 2007

I had 6 months of uptime on my WinXP, in the meantime I ignored all suggestions to reboot after installations - dozens of them. Everything worked fine.
posted by Sonic_Molson at 1:38 PM on October 3, 2007