My computer installed updates tonight. It did so without asking me. The procedure included a reboot which meant anything I had been working but not saved would have been lost.
When I regained control I checked to see if there was anything I could have done to prevent the unwanted interruption and found that there is a new feature called "Active hours". You can tell your computer when it is not to reboot without asking. But only for a set 12 hour maximum period. The preset is 8:00am to 5pm.
What does this tell us? Even though I have the "home" version, Microsoft assume I work office hours. I actually use my computer any time between 9:00am and midnight. Am I allowed to prevent reboots for this time period, leaving an utterly reasonable 9 whole hours for the system to bugger about? No, I am not. Furthermore the time slot only relates to reboots, not the tedious installation of updates that takes place before when the machine will be locked up with the ominous message "Do not switch off your PC". Great. So even if I specify when I would like not be interrupted I can't prevent an interruption. There is a temporary override for the reboot - provided I spot a warning message in time because you can't set it until an update is due. Given that the little icon that warns of messages is also used to promote crap like Cortana, I don't look at it too often.
It is genuinely baffling that Microsoft think everyone works standard US office hours, that the "home" and "professional" users should be subject to identical regimes and that users may not set hours within which no updates or reboots shall be applied. I keep thinking about ditching Windows and trying Linux and it gets more tempting all the time.
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