Maximum Recommended Uptime

[M]

Does anyone know if there is any information on maximum recommended uptime
for Windows XP? I tend to reboot my PC daily after all why leave a PC
running when I am not using it? However an issue has arisen with a client
who apparently never reboots their PCs as matter of policy and has an
uptime of over two months. He has reported an issue with an application
that I am expected to support and I have suggested that at least the
occasional reboot would be wise. He being an awkward individual who now
wants me to prove this!
Can anyone help?

 

[John John (MVP)]

There are no such recommendations. Windows XP does not need to be
rebooted unless you are doing maintenance work or applying certain
hotfixes or the odd software package.

John

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Does anyone know if there is any information on maximum recommended uptime
for Windows XP?

There is no maximum. A system without problems can normally be kept up
for many weeks or months--perhaps even longer.

I tend to reboot my PC daily after all why leave a PC
running when I am not using it?

If that's what works for you, that's fine. Personally, I keep my
computers on 24/7, in part because they are automatically backed up to
my Windows Home Server machine every night. I generally reboot only
when an update requires that I do so.

However an issue has arisen with a client
who apparently never reboots their PCs as matter of policy

Strange policy! Although it shouldn't be necessary to do it often,
there's no real downside to rebooting.

and has an
uptime of over two months.

If he installs Windows updates and those to his applications, every
now and then one comes along that requires rebooting. That means that
a possible uptime of two months has to be pretty rare.

He has reported an issue with an application
that I am expected to support and I have suggested that at least the
occasional reboot would be wise. He being an awkward individual who now
wants me to prove this!

You can't prove it, because it's not generally true. There are
circumstances in which it's true (updates, as I mentioned, and also
with some ill-behaving applications) but not always.

 

[jim]

Does anyone know if there is any information on maximum recommended uptime
for Windows XP? I tend to reboot my PC daily after all why leave a PC
running when I am not using it? However an issue has arisen with a client
who apparently never reboots their PCs as matter of policy and has an
uptime of over two months. He has reported an issue with an application
that I am expected to support and I have suggested that at least the
occasional reboot would be wise. He being an awkward individual who now
wants me to prove this!
Can anyone help?

Yes. It is a simple thing to "prove" to him. Reboot the PC and see of the
program acts better.

You can also check the memory usage of the application to see if it keeps
increasing (sometimes evidence of a memory leak due to poor programming
practices).

jim

 

[Phisherman]

Does anyone know if there is any information on maximum recommended uptime
for Windows XP? I tend to reboot my PC daily after all why leave a PC
running when I am not using it? However an issue has arisen with a client
who apparently never reboots their PCs as matter of policy and has an
uptime of over two months. He has reported an issue with an application
that I am expected to support and I have suggested that at least the
occasional reboot would be wise. He being an awkward individual who now
wants me to prove this!
Can anyone help?

Seems like once a day is typical. For a PC that is actively being
used, software memory leaks (due to sloppy coding) will gobble up
memory and the PC will slow down with possible hard drive thrashing.
But for a PC that is being used as a server or running a single
application, it could go several weeks without rebooting. I have had
a Redhat Linux proxy server that ran continuously for 10 months
without a reboot and that was only due to a power outage. Linux is
much more protective of memory than Windows. A cold reboot can
"cure" a boatload of problems, and is often one of the first things to
do when diagnosing an issue. I would recommend to the client to
reboot their machine at least once a week, possibly shut it down
during the weekend to extend the life of the PC components a little
and to conserve power.

 

[Unknown]

There is no such recommended maximum uptime. However, it is good practice to
reboot on occasion if for no other reason than to refresh memory since
memory has no parity checking.

 

[MAP]

Does anyone know if there is any information on maximum recommended
uptime for Windows XP? I tend to reboot my PC daily after all why
leave a PC running when I am not using it? However an issue has
arisen with a client who apparently never reboots their PCs as matter of
policy and has an uptime of over two months. He has
reported an issue with an application that I am expected to support
and I have suggested that at least the occasional reboot would be
wise. He being an awkward individual who now wants me to prove this!
Can anyone help?

The computers that I use at work (a 24/7 operation) are up for months at a
time.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

The computers that I use at work (a 24/7 operation) are up for months at a
time.

Ditto. Although I have found that periodically rebooting a computer
will cure memory leaks caused by poorly written applications. The OS,
itself, seems to need no such help.



--

Bruce Chambers

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[Lil' Dave]

Does anyone know if there is any information on maximum recommended uptime
for Windows XP? I tend to reboot my PC daily after all why leave a PC
running when I am not using it?

If the PC is not running, its off. If its off, a cold boot is required, not
a reboot.

However an issue has arisen with a client

who apparently never reboots their PCs as matter of policy and has an
uptime of over two months. He has reported an issue with an application
that I am expected to support and I have suggested that at least the
occasional reboot would be wise. He being an awkward individual who now
wants me to prove this!
Can anyone help?

Apparently, the individual set policy with no basis for that policy. Yet,
that individual wants you to disprove the non-basis policy. There can be no
proof for illogical policy makers.