Windows XP Professional uptime

aexon

We don't keep track, but we supply SCADA systems to users who run 24/7 and those are often based on XP pro (at least for the clients). As far as I know they don't turn them off and they don't keep complaining to us - even though they have service contracts.

Paul Watson · Citizen 20.1.01

:laugh:

regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:

At least he achieved immortality for a few years.

Paul Sanders the other one

I can't beat your record but I reboot maybe once a month, usually because some newly installed piece of software insists upon it. I hibernate my machine overnight - surely one of Windows' most unappreciated features. I use the machine for software development so it gets a reasonable workout. I am a bit picky about what I install on it, but I am running IIS, SQL Server, CVS server, VS 2005, Photoshop, Outlook, ZoneAlarm, Mozy Backup and various other assorted apps (including IE, of course) as and when. I like XP a lot - it does all the things I want without making too much fuss about it. And it is *much* more stable than my Vista laptop.

Paul Sanders http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk

Gunni

I just really hope you have a good antivirus program that you keep up to date and a strong firewall because you've missed some pretty critical security updates. People who never/hardly ever apply updates are a serious problem because they are basically begging for their computers to be exploited and recruited into a botnet. So here's hoping you are responsible enough to not let your computer become a zombie.

ClockMeister

Paul Watson wrote:

Blimey. When did Windows XP get so good that you could run it for longer than a day without it getting bogged down and requiring a reboot?

My development box has been running weeks-at-a-time for years doing heavy development and anything else I can throw at it. XP Pro is extremely solid. -CB :D

Paul Watson

Cool. Got any tips? None of the Windows XP guys here at work go a day without rebooting. They do mainly dev work on them too (though not Visual Studio. More Eclipse and other Java stuff.)

regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

Fernando A. Gomez F. wrote:

At least he achieved immortality for a few years.

ClockMeister

Hey Paul, Hmm ... that sounds odd to me. We have 15 or so developers here in the shop and I seldom hear about anyone having to restart their system very frequently at all. Are you certain that they're all up to SP2? We're doing desktop and web development - IIS, etc. I hear of very few major problems with the machines themselves. I've always been pretty conservative in the way I set my machines up - but even there I've got dozens and dozens of applications, third-party development controls, etc. For development I'm using VS.Net 2005 and VS6 (A lot of our code is still in VB6). I definitely stay away from Beta versions of anything. Same thing with my personal machine at the house. Once I got it set up and operating I've pretty much left it alone for nearly 2 years now. About the only thing that even comes close to "crashing" the thing would be games I run on it. Other than that it's pretty awful stable. The machines we use are fairly stock - HP desktops, not quite bleeding-edge. P-4 and Dual-Core machines. My Dell at the house is a P4 with XP Pro on it and it's been 100% reliable so far. Wish I had something more concrete to offer. -CB

NimitySSJ

I agree with a few others: this isn't a good point of comparison till you define "uptime" and the amount of work the computer is doing. I define uptime as "doing things that matter" and my computer run development IDE's, virtual machines, high-bandwith P2P apps, etc. It's a workhorse (or I'm a slave-driver...). Unfortunately, my new computer was built for Vista, so I have Vista Home Premium and cant switch to XP. So, for a point of comparison, what's my uptime? I think the record, without having something crash, is 6 hours. Vista is a piece of s***. It can't even close some applications when they mess up. Every night (or morning) I have to physically power it off, because shutdown won't work. (rest of system does, just not that) Then, start in safe mode, then shutdown, then start normally. Then, things work for a while. I've reset to factory conditions and done a few variations, same problems. Poor design... no uptime. (Can't use Linux till I get internet to work) God, I miss Windows XP...

CDMTJX

A lot longer than I've gone. I keep finding a need to reboot every week or so, to install, or clear up problems. As well as not waste electricity. I used to work on OpenVMS, which many customers boasted many years between reboots...

nalorin

Plus, unless the computer MUST be on 24/7, there is no point in wasting electricity 16 hours a day while you're asleep or at work.

I must agree. Why waste precious electricity if the box is not a server, or at least doing something useful, like protein folding, or SETI units, or, or, or.... you get the picture. Consider this: the amount of electricity your computer uses could be used to power 4 or more 60-watt incandescent bulbs, or approximately 20 or more flourescent bulbs. In the latter case, that could be enough to light one or two houses!

"Silently laughing at silly people is much more satisfying in the long run than rolling around with them in a dusty street, trying to knock out all their teeth. If nothing else, it's better on the clothes." - Belgarath (David Eddings)

azonenberg

The longest my Vista (32-bit) Ultimate laptop has gone was about 72 hours - then Patch Tuesday hit and I had to reboot. (I've had some problems with it, but they were mostly with non-MS apps like McAfee virus scanner. After one infinite loop too many, I killed it and got AVG instead.)

Stefan Bogdan

Over 1 year... even i don't know how i managed. over 1 year.. no kidding!

Paulo_JCG

Shame on you... and you call yourself a developer... ;P , a true developer can't have an instalation for so long... :P

Paulo Gomes Over and Out :-D

dandy72

I have an XP machine that is only rebooted on Patch Tuesdays. If it weren't for those, the machine would probably have been up for well over a year. Mind you, this is just an "overnight download" machine that I RDP into (it's an old laptop with no battery and a broken display) :-D but still...