Comments on: How long’s it been since you last rebooted Windows?

By: remote access software

remote access software — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:00:49 +0000

Oh wow! I feel bad now. Mine has been up for over 3 weeks. All the environmental energy savers are going to be mad at this article. I guess I am not as bad as bathy above me though. 1 year! That is absurd.

By: bathy

bathy — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:49:16 +0000

356 days, 3 hours and 22 seconds :D

By: JH

JH — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:53:12 +0000

I leave mine ‘up’ typically for up to a month, until either I do something stupid and crash it or MS puts an update through. I put it into standby overnight though, as that uses barely any more energy than off but still plugged in. I often wonder, which takes more energy, suspending to RAM or hibernating/shutting down and letting the HDD grind away, using power, not to mention the extra tea usage.

By: Versius

Versius — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:20:13 +0000

I have some old Trash 80’s that have been continually left on for years (not running windows obviously, lol), a 286 and a 386 that both sit humming nicely on 3.11, 4 486’s, 2 on slackware, 1 on win95 and 1 on a modded xp install, several p1/6×86/k5 systems that run various OS’s, 2 multi core AMD based desktops, one on VISTA and one on XP and 4 notebooks, 1 on XP PRO and 3 on VISTA PREMIUM that are ALL left on 24/7. In addition, I have 8 webservers that stay on all the time, running on REDHAT ENTERPRISE (of course they are located in datacenters). I’ve never had a problem with excessive failures from leaving my systems up and running. Of course, I keep my house at around 50 degrees F and I do blow the dust out occassionally. The notebook I’m using right now has been up and running for just over 768 hours. Yes, I know I’m using electricity. But, I don’t buy into the whole CO2 argument and I’m not particularly worried. Best wishes to all.

By: Richman

Richman — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:30:07 +0000

Someone doing a statistical survey?

I have three machines running since I am somewhat of a power user and am always doing about 46 things at once.

Oldest IBM Small Business Machine: 14 days, 10.5 hours
Dad’s Custom PC boomerang
back to me
(he never learned how to use it): 6 days, 36 minutes
Newest built PC to the family: 14 days, 7.5 hours

You caught me in the middle as I usually only reboot my machines every 3-4 weeks except when I am installing something requiring reboot. I usually shut everything down though if I am going to be gone for more than 48 hours.

My longest up time I am guessing was probably somewhere between more than 8 weeks and less than 10 weeks.

To Alex: You are evidently doing some kind of music sharing or file sharing. Your machine was up for around 6.5 days having received 42 G bits sent and 30 received, my newest machine was up for 14 days and net traffic was 71 M bits sent and 979 M bits received.

To Ryan: I agree. I have heard many times that expansion and contraction of the booting process is rough on electronic components which is one reason I leave mine on until it makes sense to reboot for a specific reason. Although I have always wondered if the extra spinning of the HD during the hours when you are sleeping or out to a movie would shorten the life of the bearings and or motor bushings.

Dave and John: 98 days ….wow. 5-6 months ..double capitol WOW.
Justin, 923? You win.
I always heard that Windows does not manage ram very well when opening and closing programs over a period of time and never really gets defragged until a reboot.

Black Cat: Healthy thing for Windows to reboot? How do you figure this? Could it be that your saying this because Windows is such a poorly designed OS to begin with that is appears that it runs better after a reboot and that people that do not know how to keep their machine clean and fix the occasional problem (say, the pc running slow) without the quick, easy reboot? Keep it clean and running smooth and it will not get constipated. I would suggest the ‘Dummies book to PC Laxatives’.

To Steve: You shouldn’t have to reboot due to performance issues stemming from a PC being ON for several days at a time, I would suggest that the problem may be with the PC Administrator …..oh that is probably you, sorry.

By: DTM

DTM — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:19:09 +0000

This isn’t an environmental debate, this is win-up-time. Troll somewhere else.

Work uptime: 8 days, 16 hours~ (It was last rebooted due to security updates).

Home uptime: 18 days, 14 hours~ (It was last rebooted due to security updates).

By: Kaori

Kaori — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 05:31:00 +0000

Since install: 8 days 4 hrs 2 min 27 seconds
Install: 1/16

By: zetone

zetone — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:03:08 +0000

9 days on my XP PRO. Personal Record was 122 days on a w2k3 server which was restarted by a power fault.

@Per Hansson / uptime it’s an ok tool but only available in NT4 / W2K Resource Kit.

Majority of system info tools get uptime data via WMI by interrogating Win32_OperatingSystem object.

By: Wheelyjon

Wheelyjon — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:02:10 +0000

I am disgusted at the number of people who do not turn off their PCs when they are not being used.
Unfortunately the myth of turning a machine on and off causing it to fail seems to have caught the imagination. In truth the life of electronic components is shortened far more by being kept constantly warm, and as meeeee says wear in fan and disk bearings is increased.
A heavily used PC is unlikely to be used for more than 30% of the time and to leave it running and burning electricity for the remaining 70% is totally unacceptable in the current climate of global damage. I suspect that the majority of these people come from the US where turning anything off seems to be regarded with horror.

By: Per Hansson

Per Hansson — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:49:02 +0000

Justin; Actually the 497 days is still common on some Linux distros
The previous Techspot server timed over to zero twice =)

My max on a Windows machine was a bit over 497 days (Win2K Server) It did time over to zero aswell, it crashed a few days later tho… Hardlock…

I recommend uptime.exe for all Windows OS pre Vista, much easier to read than those other commands…
It can also read remote systems you have access too…