Microsoft Windows updates while it's in use

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Frank... Also consider a faster computer, or see if yours can take a faster processor and more RAM. I've never had a Win update take an hour except on really old, or under spec'd computers, or computers with old RAID cards in them. I have a couple of fairly old Lenovo M93P Tiny's here that I use for streaming stuff. They are 7 X 7 X 1.75 inches. 8They are much faster with 32 G of ram and a a 4 core hyperthreading Intel than my HP Workstation was with dual 6 core hyperthreading processors and 64 GB of ram. I personally don't see any need for tower computers any more. I would even use an M720 and your choice of NAS to build a TMS. Also, these small computers only draw 35 to 50 watts of power

[Frank Cox]

I wonder how many thousands of times every day around the world an important presentation is cancelled or work is delayed due to stuff like this Windows Update.

I'm just amazed that Microsoft Windows is somehow considered to be suitable for business use.

A friend of mine works in the tech support division of the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation and he told me that their entire IT infrastructure, from servers to desktops to field laptops, runs on MS Windows.

*boggle*

Is it the new dog ate my homework excuse? "Sorry this project isn't done on time; Windows was updating."

Why in hell does Windows Update have to take over the whole computer and start doing random reboots anyway? My Linux computers can be updated while I'm still working on them and on the rare occasions that there's a glibc or kernel update I can reboot at my leisure anytime after it's done. And if it's on a machine that absolutely can't be rebooted for some reason there are tools like ksplice to update the running kernel in place and there's no rebooting required at all.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I have no problem with a computer getting an emergency update. But so far that's never happened to me. I remember there was info on the TV News about them releasing some of those. I have one computer I have left Auto Updates turned on. The last time it auto downloaded it put a window up that allowed me to select the time of day for the update to run. But even that stuff loaded in less than ten minutes.

[Frank Cox]

Why would I need a faster computer and 32 gb of ram to run Firefox and communicate with my cinema server? That's literally the only job that my Windows computer does.

And 32 gb? Wow. My main computer (this one) runs a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux called Rocky, it has 16gb of ram and I've never found it lacking in any respect. I even have a little laptop with 1gb of ram that I use to read books and emails, also running Rocky, and that works fine too.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Why would I need a faster computer and 32 gb of ram to run Firefox and communicate with my cinema server? That's literally the only job that my Windows computer does.

And 32 gb? Wow. My main computer (this one) runs a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux called Rocky, it has 16gb of ram and I've never found it lacking in any respect. I even have a little laptop with 1gb of ram that I use to read books and emails, also running Rocky, and that works fine too.

You don't need a lot of memory or CPU power to be on the net with Linux. But you obviously have a slow Windows computer because the updates take an hour. The computer you are on now isn't the computer you originally complained about. Lets stay "on track". Keep in mind most of the TMS's I built are Dell 2950's, or 2900 towers which were great servers then. Talk about ancient and slow now!! Your computer is right there with them.

[Frank Cox]

Ok. I have a slow Windows computer. It's the only Windows computer that I have. I don't browse the Internet with it or do anything with it at all other than run Firefox and use that to connect to my cinema server to do exciting things like press the play button or set up a playlist.

So why would you suggest that I need a 32gb Windows machine to accomplish that? Not trying to be snarky here, I genuinely don't understand the reason for it.

[Henry Atkinson]

When I see slow Windows machines (especially on Win 8 / 8.1 / 10 / 11), the cause is usually mechanical hard drives. After Windows 7, the way that Windows handles file systems was heavily optimized for solid state drives, which severely hurts performance on spinning disks (mind you it was already not fantastic post-Vista). If you're running modern Windows, and all you're running is Firefox for a basic webserver UI, there is no reason that the machine needs more than a dualcore and maybe 4-8 gb of RAM, so long as you've got an SSD with a read/write cache (some really cheap ones won't have the cache, which functionally causes similar bottlenecks to those encountered by a mechanical drive in terms of random seek performance).

I guess the better question here is why cant a machine just being used to talk to a webserver run a much lighter OS (plenty of Linux flavors fit the bill)?

[Frank Cox]

Because I pay for technical support and the technical support supports Windows for that application.

Otherwise Linux would be a lot more reliable and faster.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Because I pay for technical support and the technical support supports Windows for that application.

Otherwise Linux would be a lot more reliable and faster.

When this setup is managed by an external party like your integrator, then it's their problem to fix the update thing for you and avoid it impacting any shows I'd say.

Also, nothing stops you from putting a lightweight Linux machine in that same network and use a browser like Firefox or Chromium to do the same thing you're doing with the Windows machine. You can leave the Windows machine untouched for compliancy and use the Linux machine for your day to day business. Heck, the only thing you'd need is a Raspberry Pi, keyboad, mouse and screen.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

When this setup is managed by an external party like your integrator, then it's their problem to fix the update thing for you and avoid it impacting any shows I'd say.

Also, nothing stops you from putting a lightweight Linux machine in that same network and use a browser like Firefox or Chromium to do the same thing you're doing with the Windows machine. You can leave the Windows machine untouched for compliancy and use the Linux machine for your day to day business. Heck, the only thing you'd need is a Raspberry Pi, keyboad, mouse and screen.

Exactly! If the integrator had been mentioned the thread would be shorter. The new Raspberry Pi 5 is killer... I built a number of music streamers using Pi 3's, 4 gb running Linux and they work great..