Restart Manager in vista

**Anilrgowda** · 29-Jan-2007, 05:36 AM

Restart Manager
In the old days, ‘updating’ an operating system or program meant installing an entirely new version of the software. Then Microsoft and some software vendors started posting ‘patches’ on bulletin boards, then FTP sites, and eventually on the Web. Strangely, they didn't actually tell anyone that those patches were there, but they assumed that intrepid power users would unearth them and somehow get them installed.
This primitive state of affairs ended a few Windows versions ago when Microsoft introduced Windows Update, a service that made it much easier to find, download, and install security patches, bug fixes, software and certified driver updates, and service packs. Software vendors followed suit, and it soon become common to have a ‘Check for Updates’ feature in a software package so that you could remain up-to-date.

Having the latest Windows updates and the latest versions of programs is a real boon because it makes computers more secure and more robust. However, it doesn’t come without a cost. One of the biggest productivity killers today is the ‘Reboot Require’ message you see all too often after installing even what seems like a minor patch. This dreaded message means that you have to save all your work, shut down your running programs, restart the system, and then open all your programs, windows, and documents all over again. It’s frustrating, and it usually seems so unnecessary. Why is there so often a need for a restart after patching Windows or a program?

The short answer is that it’s not possible to overwrite a running executable file or dynamic link library (DLL), which the operating system locks while the program is in use. If the update includes a new version of a running executable or DLL, and that executable or DLL can’t be shut down, the only way to perform the update is with a reboot, which ensures that all executables and DLLs are unloaded.
Why can’t you just close the running program you say? It’s not that easy, unfortunately. For one thing, you can’t be sure these days when you shut down a program that you’re shutting down all instances of the program in memory. Consider Microsoft Word, for example, which can be running not only in the Word window, but also in Outlook as the email editor, in Internet Explorer when it displays a .doc file, and so on. For another thing, many executable files operate in the background, and you don’t even know they’re running, so there’s no interface for shutting them down.

Of course, it’s silly to unload the entire system just to patch what could be a single running file. Fortunately, Vista is tackling this absurdity with the new Restart Manager technology. Restart Manager does three things:
1: It looks for all the processes that are using the file that needs to be updated.
2: It shuts down all those processes.
3: After the updates are applied, it restarts those processes.
The real trick here is the way that Restart Manager performs these restarts in programs designed to work with it. Restart Manager doesn’t just start up the program and leave you to fend for yourself by reopening all your documents. Instead, it preserves the exact state of each running process and then restores that state upon restarting the process. If you’re working in Word on a document named Brian.doc and the cursor was in line 10, column 20, Restart Manager not only restarts Word, but it also opens Brian.doc and restores the cursor to line 10, column 20. Redmond calls saving the program state in this way as freeze-drying. Note that the full functionality of Restart Manager is available only to applications written to take advantage of it. Office 2007 is the only program so far that has this capability, but expect most major applications to become Restart Manager-aware in their next versions.

For programs that don’t support Restart Manager, Vista introduces a new idea called side-by-side compliant DLLs. This technology enables an installation program to write a new version of a DLL to the hard disk, even if the old version is still in use. When you shut down the program, Vista replaces the old version of the DLL with the new one, so the next time you start the application, the update will be complete.
All of this means that updates should require far fewer reboots in Vista than in XP, not that reboots will never be required, however. In particular, there will always be patches that must update one or more core operating system files. By definition, core operating system files run at start-up and remain running as long as the system is on, and it’ not possible to shut them down without shutting down the entire operating system. Technically, you can rename the file and then install the new version under the old name, but that could lead to all kinds of system problems. In those situations, there will be no choice but to reboot to apply the patch. Hopefully, however, Vista’s faster shutdown and start-up times will make this less of a headache as well.

29-Jan-2007, 05:36 AM	#1 (permalink)
Anilrgowda Administrator Posts: 18,715 Join Date: Jan 2006 Rep Power: 10 IM:	Restart Manager in vista Restart Manager In the old days, ‘updating’ an operating system or program meant installing an entirely new version of the software. Then Microsoft and some software vendors started posting ‘patches’ on bulletin boards, then FTP sites, and eventually on the Web. Strangely, they didn't actually tell anyone that those patches were there, but they assumed that intrepid power users would unearth them and somehow get them installed. This primitive state of affairs ended a few Windows versions ago when Microsoft introduced Windows Update, a service that made it much easier to find, download, and install security patches, bug fixes, software and certified driver updates, and service packs. Software vendors followed suit, and it soon become common to have a ‘Check for Updates’ feature in a software package so that you could remain up-to-date. Having the latest Windows updates and the latest versions of programs is a real boon because it makes computers more secure and more robust. However, it doesn’t come without a cost. One of the biggest productivity killers today is the ‘Reboot Require’ message you see all too often after installing even what seems like a minor patch. This dreaded message means that you have to save all your work, shut down your running programs, restart the system, and then open all your programs, windows, and documents all over again. It’s frustrating, and it usually seems so unnecessary. Why is there so often a need for a restart after patching Windows or a program? The short answer is that it’s not possible to overwrite a running executable file or dynamic link library (DLL), which the operating system locks while the program is in use. If the update includes a new version of a running executable or DLL, and that executable or DLL can’t be shut down, the only way to perform the update is with a reboot, which ensures that all executables and DLLs are unloaded. Why can’t you just close the running program you say? It’s not that easy, unfortunately. For one thing, you can’t be sure these days when you shut down a program that you’re shutting down all instances of the program in memory. Consider Microsoft Word, for example, which can be running not only in the Word window, but also in Outlook as the email editor, in Internet Explorer when it displays a .doc file, and so on. For another thing, many executable files operate in the background, and you don’t even know they’re running, so there’s no interface for shutting them down. Of course, it’s silly to unload the entire system just to patch what could be a single running file. Fortunately, Vista is tackling this absurdity with the new Restart Manager technology. Restart Manager does three things: 1: It looks for all the processes that are using the file that needs to be updated. 2: It shuts down all those processes. 3: After the updates are applied, it restarts those processes. The real trick here is the way that Restart Manager performs these restarts in programs designed to work with it. Restart Manager doesn’t just start up the program and leave you to fend for yourself by reopening all your documents. Instead, it preserves the exact state of each running process and then restores that state upon restarting the process. If you’re working in Word on a document named Brian.doc and the cursor was in line 10, column 20, Restart Manager not only restarts Word, but it also opens Brian.doc and restores the cursor to line 10, column 20. Redmond calls saving the program state in this way as freeze-drying. Note that the full functionality of Restart Manager is available only to applications written to take advantage of it. Office 2007 is the only program so far that has this capability, but expect most major applications to become Restart Manager-aware in their next versions. For programs that don’t support Restart Manager, Vista introduces a new idea called side-by-side compliant DLLs. This technology enables an installation program to write a new version of a DLL to the hard disk, even if the old version is still in use. When you shut down the program, Vista replaces the old version of the DLL with the new one, so the next time you start the application, the update will be complete. All of this means that updates should require far fewer reboots in Vista than in XP, not that reboots will never be required, however. In particular, there will always be patches that must update one or more core operating system files. By definition, core operating system files run at start-up and remain running as long as the system is on, and it’ not possible to shut them down without shutting down the entire operating system. Technically, you can rename the file and then install the new version under the old name, but that could lead to all kinds of system problems. In those situations, there will be no choice but to reboot to apply the patch. Hopefully, however, Vista’s faster shutdown and start-up times will make this less of a headache as well.

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