Thanks for watching TechQuickie. Click the subscribe button, then enable
notifications with the bell icon, so you won't miss any future videos. If you're
old enough to remember using MS-DOS, then you might also remember how easy it
could be to run a new program. Just pop in the conveniently sized floppy disk,
type in a command or two, wait for the data to load into RAM, and you're up and
running. These days, so-called portable
installs do still exist, but because modern programs are much larger and more
complex, it is much more common to have to install a program before you can use
it. With many of them prompting you to restart your entire system before you
can really get up and running. But why?
Well, lots of modern programs work by tying themselves somewhat directly into
your operating system's functions. For example, they may need to install new
drivers or APIs that the program depends on, but that might require modification
of system files that the PC is currently using. And if Windows is busy with the
current version of a file, well, it can't be changed until the next time the
computer is restarted. Think about how hard it would be to try and change your
tires while you're driving your car down the freeway. Another common way that this can pop up
is if the program relies on a DLL. These
files contain bits of code or even other
files that are shared among many different programs. For example, if a
program needs to know how much free disk space is remaining, it can just ask a
shared DLL to get the answer. And because DLLs are often being accessed by
other programs, the installer would need to reboot the system in order to make
sure that nothing else is using the DLL before it makes any changes to it.
Pretty common courtesy, if you ask me. Don't make changes to common areas
without checking with someone first. This is often also true for the system
registry. You can learn more about that here, but basically, it's a set of files
in Windows that stores tons of crucial settings for your system.
But wait, hold on a minute there, Linus. I can go into the registry editor and
manually make changes anytime I want without being prompted for a reboot.
Yes, you can, but those changes may not
go into effect if a program is currently reading the existing value. So,
installers typically ask you to reboot the system just to make sure that
everything got loaded properly, as many programs rely on correct registry
settings in order to run properly. And this central theme of, "I'm terribly
sorry, but you simply can't change stuff while you're using it," is also the
reason why some pieces of software don't require a full reboot, but might require
you to restart a program. You see this one a lot when applying individual
program updates, as the installer might not hook into your operating system
deeply enough to force a full restart, but it can't patch critical dependencies
if you're in the middle of actually using them. And because many of these
same changes are made when you uninstall a program, you'll probably have to
reboot then as well in order to completely rid your system of that
horrible indie game you can't believe you paid $15 for.
So, while this integration with your OS has made modern programs more powerful
and easier to code, it also means that the portable programs of yesteryear have
become a fair bit less common. Oh well, I mean, at least it beats
trying to run all your software directly from a 4X CD-ROM drive, am I right?
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grandmother will have a stroke. Actually, she did like 3 days ago. Yeah,
it's not funny at all. I'm not Yeah. I got to go see her after work
today. She's fine. No, no, she's fine. It's cool. No,
this is sad.