eli5 – Why do most softwares require a system reboot after install?
In: 14
Former installer developer here!
TL;DR to prevent data loss
This doesn’t cover all cases but for the most part: Part of the installer puts files in the right folders, another part sets operating system settings, another part sets application settings and then maybe a final part does some custom actions to maybe set up data or user profiles to get ready for use. Sometimes there are updates to shared files or shared settings that need to be changed, that may be in use while you run the install- as a developer you can chose to force the user or OS to temporarily stop the app or system feature while you do the update which is a little dangerous because the installer can’t always tell the state of the program or feature perfectly and could cause data loss. As an alternative- we defer some actions until after reboot and before those apps or features load. This way we can more safely make the changes with lower risk of screwing up you computer. There are other strategies devs can use to get around reboots but installers are blunt tools and it’s very difficult to predict what will be going on on every user’s computer when they click install.
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