Audience: Franklin University staff and faculty using a computer that is owned by Franklin University, does not apply to student-facing (classroom) computers.
Disclaimer: The results and functionality of the following article only apply to the audience listed above.
Topics
- What are Mandatory Computer Restarts?
- How to Avoid the Interruption of Mandatory Restarts
- What is a Computer Restart? (It's more than meets the eye)
- Not Losing Active Work
What are Mandatory Computer Restarts?
Franklin University is implementing mandatory computer restarts for staff and faculty computers. Routine restarts of the computer help apply important security updates, keeping our data and technology safe.
These restarts will be presented to you in the following format (shown below). If you see this pop up, you will have a period of time to initiate the restart when you are ready (outlined in red below).
However, there will also be a timer of 2 hours from the start of the popup. If you are not able to initiate the restart before the timer runs out, a forced restart will ensue.
- Please restart your computer before the timer runs out, or make note of the timer countdown to save your work.
How to Avoid the Interruption of Mandatory Restarts
The best method for avoiding interruption is to routinely restart your computer. Routine restarts of your computer help apply important security updates. Having such updates install on the computer will keep the computer out of a state where a mandatory restart pop ups are necessary.
- If you are met with the mandatory restart popup often in a short amount of time, this may mean that your computer is behind schedule of applying updates. If so, that means a series of restarts are needed to apply sequential updates.
What is a Computer Restart?
This might sound like a simple question, but it is more convoluted that you may expect.
Important Distinction: A restart of your computer is not the same as shutting down the computer and powering it back on. Instead, a restart is a complete cycling of the computer resources, which shutting down and then powering back on is not.
- NOT a restart: Closing your laptop lid when finished working.
- NOT a restart: Opening the Power Menu and selecting the "Shut Down" option
- IS a restart: Opening the Power Menu and selecting the "Restart" option
Restart in Windows 10
Restart in Windows 11 [from the Start Menu / Windows Button]
Not Losing Active Work
While avoiding restarts can be used to keep active browser sessions and other work from closing, this is not a strong security practice. Therefore, as avoiding restarts is no longer an option, you can keep from losing work by:
- Regularly saving work in any software or online application that doesn't implement an autosave-feature.
- If you have websites that you don't want to loose track of, you can save all of your open tabs for later review. Instructions are below for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
In Chrome
- Right click the open space next to your last tab and choose the option Bookmark all tabs. This option will allow you to save all tabs into an existing folder or a new folder.
In Firefox
Similar to Chrome, Firefox allows you to save all browser tabs by right-clicking in the space to the right of your last tab.
- First, select all tabs
- Then right click in the space again to see the menu once more. With all tabs selected, you can bookmark all selected tabs.
In Edge
Edge uses "workspaces" to allow you to save and restore browser tabs.
- With a series of tabs open, you can use the workspaces icon in the upper left corner of Edge.
- Within this menu you will have the option to create a New workspace, and then Save Tabs to a Workspace. Then you can use the workspaces icon again when you need to revisit those tabs.