How Windows Vista Works - Windows Vista Cool New Features & API’s - Part I - Restart Manager API

Posted on March 11, 2007 at 3:17 pm

Make sure to read other posts from the Windows Vista Cool Features series!

How Windows Vista Works - Windows Vista Cool New Features & API’s - Part I - Restart Manager API
How Windows Vista Works - Windows Vista Cool New Features & API’s - Part II - You can run Vista in a Virtual PC on the same computer for free!
How Windows Vista Works - Windows Vista Cool New Features & API’s - Part III - Windows DreamScene
How Windows Vista Works - Windows Vista Cool New Features & API’s - Part IV - The new "Sleep" power state
How Windows Vista Works - Windows Vista Cool New Features & API’s - Part V - Windows Anytime Upgrade
How Windows Vista Works - Windows Vista Cool New Features & API’s - Part VI - Windows Meeting Space

I’m going to start a series on some very promising and cool features that will hopefully make Windows Vista worth the 6 year wait! I’ll explain these in layman’s terms so that even if you are someone who will ever write a line of code, you’ll at least understand some of the more intricate reasons why Vista is better than XP, other than the common stuff like it looks cooler and has better security.

And what makes Windows better? Well one thing would be if you didn’t have to restart your computer every time you installed an application! And considering it takes my computer 10 minutes from the time I shut it off to the time I can start using it again, this should be a great feature!

The main reason why you have to restart after an installation is because there are files that need to be replaced, but are currently being used by Windows and hence cannot be replaced. Now when programmers write a software application that uses the new interface, the restart manager built into Vista will enable just about all services (except some critical services) to be restarted without shutting down the computer!! The way it does this is that the Restart Manager gets a list of files that need to be updated by the software that is being installed and determines which applications or services are using these files and shuts them down automatically, hence allowing the files to be replaced.

This is a feature that depends on the developer community using the new Restart Manager API, but once it becomes common, as it surely will with all major software development companies, you might that you don’t have to restart your computer for a very long time!

Enjoyed this post? Subscribe to Online Tech Tips via RSS Feed or via Email and receive free daily productivity tips.

» Filed Under Windows Vista