When you use a Windows PC, reboots are something you can already expect. It’s practically a Windows feature, one that you’d think was designed to annoy you or compel you to do unspeakable things to your computer. But reboots are also a mandatory step for many things, most often when you have installed new software or a new Windows update. You’ll often get nag screens asking you to reboot. But what if you’re in the midst of very important work and you don’t want the downtime(albeit short) you’ll have to go through just to reboot your PC? Here are some workarounds you can do to avoid reboots.
There are some programs that don’t really require a reboot even if it tells you to do so. To find out which programs do need a reboot, download a program called WhyReboot. This program will tell you if the Windows OS needs to perform an operation when it restarts. If the program says that it hasn’t found anything then you don’t need to do a reboot. The exception here is when you install new drivers. This is something that the program may not be able to detect so err on the side of caution and do a reboot if you install drivers.
One thing that really requires a reboot is the installation of Windows updates. But there are times when these updates are installed at an inconvenient time for you. If these things happen often you can opt to just disable Windows’ auto reboot feature. This will give you control of when your PC will reboot. An additional option is to schedule when your computer installs updates. This is a great solution for people who leave their PCs running 24/7.
There are times when you really don’t need to do a full reboot. Just logging off is enough to satisfy the requirements of the ‘reboot.’ This is a very simple step and quite easy to do. For those who are more confident about their computer skills, changing the registry will allow you to ‘reboot’ by just restarting explore.exe. If you want to try this, just open the Start menu, now while holding the Ctrl and Shift keys, right click on the space in the Start menu. An Exit Explorer prompt will appear. Clicking this will allow you to quit Windows Explorer safely. Now press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and then choose Task Manager. Click on File and then New Task. Type in explorer to start explorer.exe again.
Photo from windowsreboot.com