I know there is a lot of talk going on right now about Microsoft Windows 8, but I just ran into something very funny on my Windows 7 virtual machine (VM). Those who know me know that I expunged Windows from my daily life over 10 years ago, but I still need to access it from time-to-time.
I stubbornly insisted on using Windows XP for the longest time in my VM, since Vista was such a pain, and Windows 7 never really called to me. Now with end-of-life coming for XP, I’ve been calling on my Win7 VM for the few things that I need windows for. It has become so rare that typically starting the VM leads down a long path of not-yet-installed Windows updates, one of the many reasons I left the Microsoft ecosystem.
Windows Update can’t reboot because Windows Update is running.
What happened is another – just general Microsoft silliness. As you finish downloading updates, you frequently need to reboot (far more frequently than you should have to, one more reason…). When you go to reboot Windows checks running applications and tries to decide if it’s safe to restart. If you have an unsaved document in Word for example, it prompts you to save it before you lose something, a very reasonable behavior.
In this case, the only things running were Windows Explorer (not IE, just the file browser) and Windows Update – the application doing the update itself. Note that the below picture behavior happened repeatedly one more than one machine, sometimes being blocked by only Windows Update.
So take a look – Windows Update can’t reboot because… wait for it… Windows Update is running. Hilarious.
If you don’t see why it’s funny, let me know. If you have your own funny stories about any OS, especially with pictures, please share via the comments, twitter, etc.