SCCM updates: User Experience - Reboot notifications
Here is the User experience for the update process as I understand it:
1. System tray balloon appears saying 'software changes are required'
2. System tray balloon appears saying 'downloading and installing software'
3. System tray balloon appears saying 'Restart required: Recently installed updates require your machine to be restarted'
4. *It is here I would like the larger temporary notification reboot window to appear but it doesn't.
5. Permanent notification reboot window appears and stays on the screen
I would like option 4 to be possible. Without this it seems quite easy for users to miss seeing the balloon notification and therefore not know that a restart is coming.
It would be good if there was an option in Client Settings > Computer Restart to automatically show the temporary restart notification window. It would also be good if there was an option here to permanently set the 'SCNotification.exe' in Notification Area Icons to 'show icon and notification' to further improve the visibility to users of pending restarts so they know to save their work before they leave their computer for lunch or when they go home.
I've attached an image of the temporary notification window I am talking about
Thanks,
Andrew
andrewjohnporter
shared this idea
34 comments
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Anonymous
commented
I'm not sure how 'disruptive' Software Updates is, unless an enterprise has very picky users. In that case, it might be time for some tough love. We all make sacrifices in the interest of the enterprise. We deploy updates once am month over the weekend and give users with mobile devices an extended two-week deadline to install that month's updates...after which they are forcefully installed and the systems forcefully rebooted....with full user notifications. I agree that in Windows 10 the notifications are entirely inadequate, and we should be given more flexibility in how they appear. Using group policy registry change, you can extend the visibilty of toast notifications, but this change will affect ALL toast notifications. Default is 5 seconds, but you can extend up to 5 minutes. Users have the option to close them, of course. What also helps is that we send an email to users, telling them and showing them what to expect with screenshots. Users are much more tolerate with proactive communication. But Microsoft, you're not off the hook. Give us more notification control please.
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Eric
commented
Our company recently went to the MTC in Dallas and discussed this issue with them. The MS recommendation to us was to stop using ConfigMan for patching and switch to a different solution. I am not making that up. There was no other solution that MS could come up with to solve all the user complaints about how disruptive Software Updates are. Its crazy because this could be easily solved. I guess MS shows no love to SCCM anymore and wants all their customers to stop using it in favor of 3rd party tools.
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Eric
commented
How is it we have a simple user enhancement with almost 900 votes that is still being ignored by the product team even after several years of complaints? I have even personally given this feedback to the PMs at multiple conferences. Our users have been furious with how Windows Updates work for years. The only option we have is to just tell them its Microsoft's fault and there is nothing we can do about it. Huge black eye for MS on this one. If I could give this 10 votes I would. There isn't a single enhancement for ConfigMan that is more important than this one.
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Paul Faulkner
commented
This absolutely must be done, I am amazed this behaviour hasn't been changed yet. It has to be the main area of user complaints about SCCM anywhere I've worked, especially for mobile users.
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Anonymous
commented
Anyone have an idea on if MS even saw this or if anything related to this is in the works?
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Grant Morgan
commented
Maybe a second enhancement - but would also be nice if the [Restart] button honored the "Always suspend BitLocker" option so when a user clicks Restart in the notification BL was suspended... right now it's just happening when the permanent window comes up
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Ryan
commented
I think something like the Shutdown Tool created by Coretech would be perfect to handle reboots after installing Software Updates.
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RW
commented
We should at least be able to set the maximum notification time to longer than 1440 minutes on "display a dialog box that the user cannot close." Giving the user a few days to gracefully restart is the desired feature, and the simplest way to implement that is to let the restart notification last for a few days. I don't want it to be nice and easy for them to ignore, so the permanent popup would be fine. The options need a lot of improvements overall.
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HeyAdmin
commented
Absolutely need improvements here. Notifications must be more conspicuous, and we need the ability to enforce visibility of the system center icon when software/updates are available, required, installing, or require a restart.
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andrewjohnporter
commented
Hopefully this will be improved soon. The guys are doing good work elsewhere.
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GT
commented
Maybe this can be merged with this one:
This is an important enhancement and in-place upgrade Task Sequences are failing if there is a pending system reboot.
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Glenn Turner
commented
Yes, this needs to be way more visible than the balloon hidden in the tray. How about a reminder that pops up every x hours until they have done a reboot (configurable by admin).
The root cause of this in our environment is that the users just shut down their surface pro and start it again and think that's a reboot... The Surface fast startup feature means hat this isn't a reboot as far as update installation is concerned. Perhaps that can be fixed and then the other problem won't be so severe.
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Gawie
commented
It will also be great to have an "SCCM banner" displaying on the client machine, big enough to notifying them about the Software Update
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Dominique
commented
I am looking for an easy customization of the popups coming from SCCM...
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Andrew
commented
There are multiple user voices regarding restart notifications being inadequate going back years. When will we see such a simple improvement to core functionality? Customers are losing faith in IT due to lack of control. Making a restart timer that requires input would be a start.
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Jose
commented
have the same request from one of my customers
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Luke
commented
Is it possible to allow the user to supress the reboot required after an update has installed? I think this option should be a tick box in Client Settings - Computer Restart.
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Paul
commented
Working with a customer right now and this is a requirement for them. End users miss the first notification and tray icon - we've had to set a long timeout for the permanent notification so they don't miss the reboot notification.
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Paul
commented
this is logged in more than one article so well over 300 votes if all added up MS
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Paul
commented
In 2017 still asking for this functionality is awful - why oh why is the reboot window visible and the notification window purely a balloon.
Please MS react to this ist been way too long.
The only thing I can do is increase the timeout of the balloon notification but this affects all notifications so not ideal: