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I did a big step from Windows XP to Windows 8 recently. so maybe this question is for windows 7 too?

In Windows XP, Windows installs updates at shutdowm. But in Windows 8, Windows installs updates on startup, then shuts down and starts up again. Why is that?

Maybe I talk to myself when I say it is more important to boot the computer quickly rather than shut it down quickly.

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closed as not constructive by techie007, ChrisF, 8088, Journeyman Geek, soandos Nov 5 '12 at 3:20


Windows 7 also does it. I don't know why but I presume there's a technical reason for it, such as the files were locked when the system was running and were going to remain locked while it was shutting down, or something. –  Mark Allen Nov 4 '12 at 21:00
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up vote 2 down vote accepted

My Windows XP memory has gone quite bad, but i remember that on Windows Vista and Windows 7, updates were first downloaded and then installed. For updates which required a restart to be completely installed, they would begin when you click on Restart or Shutdown. You could see some progress during the shut-down process. However, they would continue on start-up and finally complete. So if you look at it, updates were installed during the shutdown-startUp cycle. AFAIK this continues to be the case with Windows 8. I'm on Win 8 Pro and update process looks familiar to me.

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