Revolution unbooted

[Mark Wieder]

Jon, Chipp-

Monday, July 18, 2005, 4:11:17 PM, you wrote:

CW> I concur with Jon. I regularly use 3 separate Windows XP machines, and
CW> multiple programs on each and never find the NEED TO reboot them, other
CW> than for service patches and app installs.

The *need* to reboot them is subtler than that. Windows is a set of
multi-level interdependent drivers and libraries that is dynamically
rebuilt each time Windows reboots. My rule of thumb when making system
changes is to reboot three times - each successive boot builds on the
previous dependency model. Things can get a bit tenuous if Windows
isn't allowed to reassure itself every so often about what's holding
it up. Michael Swaine had a good writeup of the process in an article
a while back called "House of Cards", but I can't find a reference to
it at the moment.

Granted my rebooting every day my be a bit compulsive, but I figure
it's a good habit to get into and this ensures that it gets done.

Jon - your "eventually something becomes unstable" is *exactly* what
I'm talking about.

-- 
-Mark Wieder
 mwieder at ahsoftware.net