Update Reboot Nag

Recently my system applied an update from BitDefender that required a reboot. Then BitDefender began to nag me constantly about the need to reboot. While it is all well and good that BitDefender applies updates, and it is understood that at times those updates will require a reboot, it is unacceptable for it to pester me frequently.

In this case I had important work open that I needed to complete before a reboot, so rebooting was not a good option at the time. Unfortunately, the BitDefender nags became increasingly frequent until the point that I dismissed one and went back to typing an email, when approximately 45 seconds later, another popped up and because I was typing at the time and apparently hit a hot-key, my system immediately rebooted without further prompt mid sentence, no prompt to save from any of the open applications, they were all immediately terminated. This was completely unacceptable on many levels.


  • First, it has become common practice that when such nags are necessary that the user is given an option to delay such nag for some predetermined time, that is clear to the user and often selectable. I.E. remind me again tonight/tomorrow, or remind me again in X hours.

  • Second, any such dialog that will immediately reboot your machine should not have hotkeys in it as it should not be made easy to reboot your system inadvertently but rather the process should take some thought and effort.

  • Third, any such dialog that is about to reboot my system should contain a further prompt for my confirmation, including an explanation that the shutdown process will begin immediately, all applications will be forcibly closed and that any unsaved data will be lost (as it was in my case). While I did not need this information, and am well aware as a software developer of these consequences, this additional confirmation would have likely stopped the inadvertent shutdown of my machine and prevented the loss of data that occurred.

  • Fourth, any such shutdown should use the typical windows shutdown procedure, which will allow any application with unsaved data, to stop the process from continuing, possibly with a countdown, but also with an opportunity cancel the process if someone realizes that there is something they have forgotten about that needs to be taken care of before completing the reboot. That was not the case here, this was the fastest reboot I have ever seen. All applications were forcibly closed instantly, and the reboot process occurred. I had several applications that would have blocked for prompt a typical windows system reboot. Your process is too aggressive and is harmful to your users.

  • Fifth your reboot dialog should not steal focus when it pops up. If I am in the middle of typing your popup should not pull me out of the application that I am in the middle of using and start accepting keyboard input that was not meant for it.
  • Sixth, any such update that requires a reboot, should not be performed until that reboot is requested or approved. I understand that such updates are necessary, and that their application may leave the system vulnerable until the time of the reboot, making the reboot of some urgency. Delaying the application of the patch until the reboot is approved will allow the system to continue to be protected, at the existing level, until the point that the user is safe to reboot without data loss.

And now the process has restarted, BitDefender is once again telling me I have to reboot to complete the update process. Apparently shutting my computer down yesterday was not enough.

I hope that this situation can be addressed, for the last several years I have enjoyed switching to Bitdefender after McAfee caused me to many system issues and they were unable to fix the software in a timely manner. Bitdefender until now has worked well and not impacted my computer use greatly. The "Hey Im Here" popups are annoying and I would prefer they be gone when I am paying for the software, but having my CPU and Memory resources available is more important. However, computer resets mid work cannot be tolerated.

Comments

  • Let me add to AaronM's comments....I also receive this reboot prompt after daily full shutdowns.

    The dialog box contains no reference to Bitdefender. Not even a logo. At first, I had no idea what was generating this prompt.

    Worse, some quick searching shows that this has apparently been an issue for YEARS.

  • Hello,

    Thank you for your feedback and also please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

    Please run a repair on your Bitdefender, after the repair process is complete and the system is rebooted please run an update using the Update button on the main interface. After the update is finished you will see an Event asking for a reboot, please use the restart button there to reboot the machine again.

    http://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-repair-bitdefender-2016-1469.html

    Also please ensure you have the option to Postpone reboots under the Update tab in General Settings.



  • On ‎2016‎-‎07‎-‎23 at 5:56 PM, Sorin G. said:



    Hello,


    Thank you for your feedback and also please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.


    Please run a repair on your Bitdefender, after the repair process is complete and the system is rebooted please run an update using the Update button on the main interface. After the update is finished you will see an Event asking for a reboot, please use the restart button there to reboot the machine again.


    http://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-repair-bitdefender-2016-1469.html


    Also please ensure you have the option to Postpone reboots under the Update tab in General Settings.



    Please explain me how this REPAIR procedure can solve the issue from AaronM? I read through few other posts and found out that 'Repair' option is quite often a proposed solution instead of REAL solution.


    Moreover today I became a VICTIM of Bitdefender sudden reboot!. No warnings, no popups, just sudden reboot. After that happen I checked system event and found that application that initiate the reboot was Bitdefender. What a is going on with this app? This is unacceptable! All open applications were killed, without any prompt, anything. I definitely will NOT renew my subscription for BD if this will be not solved!. There should be an option to block BD from restarting PC.


    Please let me know how can I totally block Bitdefender from restarting my PC. I don't want Bitdefender to do that!. If I want to restart PC then I will do it by myself.


  • **** this reboot dialog. It's shut down two of my PCs while I was coding in the last few days.


    Who in their right mind would design a button that immediately shuts down everything and mark it as active!? I don't know what you guys do all day, but I use my space and enter keys pretty frequently, and I do like my input do go where I directed it. Anyone with a little computer experience hates focus grabbing, so just stop it. Use the system notification interface, that's what it's there for.



  • On 11/9/2016 at 11:39 AM, Randelung said:



    **** this reboot dialog. It's shut down two of my PCs while I was coding in the last few days.


    Who in their right mind would design a button that immediately shuts down everything and mark it as active!? I don't know what you guys do all day, but I use my space and enter keys pretty frequently, and I do like my input do go where I directed it. Anyone with a little computer experience hates focus grabbing, so just stop it. Use the system notification interface, that's what it's there for.



    I have had the reboot nag steal focus right as I was typing and hit "enter," which is apparently all it took to instantly send my computer into restarting over one pointless update. 


    There needs to be an option to disable updates that require a restart. All I require are the standard definition updates, and if a "product update" truly requires me to immediately drop everything I am doing to restart, I would like to know WHY this update is so important, what it does, and why I cannot defer it for a reasonable amount of time or until I restart by my own choosing. Even changing to a work profile and ticking every box in the advanced options is ineffective, and this intrusive "feature" can get extremely frustrating.  Randelung is in the right, this should be relegated to a notification at most.



  • On 11/9/2016 at 11:39 AM, Randelung said:



    **** this reboot dialog. It's shut down two of my PCs while I was coding in the last few days.


    Who in their right mind would design a button that immediately shuts down everything and mark it as active!? I don't know what you guys do all day, but I use my space and enter keys pretty frequently, and I do like my input do go where I directed it. Anyone with a little computer experience hates focus grabbing, so just stop it. Use the system notification interface, that's what it's there for.



    THIS.


    Same thing has happened to me. I'm right in the middle of doing work and the prompt shows up defaulted to Restart. Has caught me rebooting my PC immediately with no warning because I was actively typing.


    How do I turn this off? 


    I'm doing the repair process now to see if this helps, but I doubt it. This behavior with the prompt has happened to both my laptop and desktop within the past month or so whereas it never did it until recently. Postpone reboot is checked in my settings.


    If the repair does not fix it, then I will seriously consider going with another antivirus provider upon renewal. I just cannot have a prompt show up multiple times for no reason with a default of Restart when I'm trying to type.

  • big_ugly
    edited November 2016


    I have has the same experience twice this week.  In the middle of typing out an email just a few minutes ago, and the reboot nag prompt that I had just cancelled a few seconds earlier reappeared and took focus in the foreground, and because I was typing at the time, the machine did a force restart without allowing me to cleanly shut down my work, save files, etc.  Being in IT myself I understand the importance of keeping security software up to date and patching applications regularly, but the home users of your product need more control. 


    And making the reboot prompt take away the focus from the active application, with a default of restart with no warning, and allowing any key press to activate the restart button... Seriously, who is QA'ing this?  


  • Hello,


     


    Sorry to hear about the situation.


    Please open a ticket with our support team and provide them with the logs from the Bitdefender Support Tool.


    http://www.bitdefender.com/support/How-to-generate-a-support-log--1168.html


    I kindly ask that you also provide them with a screenshot of the prompt.


    Thank you for your understanding.



  • On 12/1/2016 at 0:50 PM, Sorin G. said:



    Hello,


     


    Sorry to hear about the situation.


    Please open a ticket with our support team and provide them with the logs from the Bitdefender Support Tool.


    http://www.bitdefender.com/support/How-to-generate-a-support-log--1168.html


    I kindly ask that you also provide them with a screenshot of the prompt.


    Thank you for your understanding.



    I was going through the process of doing this and when I was creating the ticket, the web site told me I could update to Total Security 2017 for free. So I did that and going to see if the problem remains.


  • This is my second reply to the same issue (different post).


    If the post is oo long to read and comprehend, let me summarize it:


    • Where: The update nag that pops up to remind you to reboot

    • What: DO NOT DEFAULT TO "OK" or "REBOOT" or whatever positive confirmation is used.  Instead: DEFAULT TO "REMIND ME LATER"

    • Why: you are destroying your customers work by rebooting their machines when your nag screen takes focus and accepts ENTER as: "OK, I will reboot your machine now"

    • When: Yesterday. Nobody should ever code software this way.  Not since Windows NT (I would say Win 3.1, but nobody ever used that seriously).


  • On 12/2/2016 at 4:56 PM, Jason said:



    This is my second reply to the same issue (different post).


    If the post is oo long to read and comprehend, let me summarize it:


    • Where: The update nag that pops up to remind you to reboot

    • What: DO NOT DEFAULT TO "OK" or "REBOOT" or whatever positive confirmation is used.  Instead: DEFAULT TO "REMIND ME LATER"

    • Why: you are destroying your customers work by rebooting their machines when your nag screen takes focus and accepts ENTER as: "OK, I will reboot your machine now"

    • When: Yesterday. Nobody should ever code software this way.  Not since Windows NT (I would say Win 3.1, but nobody ever used that seriously).


    In addition to this, if you check the event log in Bitdefender, it specifically says that it needs to reboot to "replace all the files."


    What kind of amateur hour special is that? Every Bitdefender update now essentially requires reinstalling itself? How is it that ever other AV program simply updates the virus definitions in the background and stays a good little program well out of the user's way? I've checked the "Update" section in the 2017 version's forum and this still appears to be an issue in that version as well. The more this gets dragged on, the more I would rather not opt for the "free 2017 upgrade" and upgrade to another AV that doesn't constantly feel the need to steal focus for a frankly unnecessary step in updating. Poor coding indeed.


  • Just wanted to add to this to help anyone with this problem that I had as well...


    In updating to the latest BitDefender 2017, BitDefender now uses the default Windows 10 prompting (rather than it's own toast pop ups) that do not grab focus away and do not default space or enter to the Reboot button.


    So while this problem still exists with BitDefender 2016 - I'd recommend people updating to 2017 to alleviate the problem. I have done so on all my primary machines and have not had the issue since. The prompt shows, but does not interrupt my work (and therefore causing me to inadvertently reboot).


  • Don't mind me! Just another disgruntled customer waiting out my subscription (56 days) so I can jump ship due to this lovely 'feature'. 

    This is infuriating.. I can't be saving and stopping all my work to reboot my computer twice a day, why must software updates treat everyone like children? This has impacted me greatly, trying to dodge consistent 15 minute popups like russian roulette, I use the spacebar multiple times a second when typing or using CAD.. so it's only a matter of time until I inadvertently press the bloody space bar.... THE MOST USED KEY ON THE KEYBOARD.. juuust as the pop-up arrives and then HOPE TO GOD THE AUTOSAVE HAS YOUR BACK BECAUSE WE'RE CLOSING ALL YOUR FOR USING THE SPACE BAR, THE MOST USED KEY ON THE KEYBOARD, 3 bloody times in 2 days it's closed all my work losing me anywhere between 1-30 mins of work and here I am PAYING for the privilege.. the level of carelessness in this system.. How does this get through to the final product.

    I have an idea.. how about you save your precious restart for when I turn off my computer at the end of the day? or the OP hit the nail on the head.. WHERE IS THE CONFIRMATION? WHY SUCH AN AGGRESSIVE REBOOT? Give me a chance 


  • How did you get the invite to upgrade to Bitdefender 2017?



  • 18 hours ago, mark4323 said:



    How did you get the invite to upgrade to Bitdefender 2017?



    They originally asked me to follow the info at this link: http://www.bitdefender.com/support/How-to-generate-a-support-log--1168.html


    When I signed in to send the info that was requested, it informed me I could upgrade. So instead of submitting my ticket info I upgraded to the latest version. In doing so, I no longer have the problem. Version 2017 uses the native Windows toast notification and does not default to the yes button.


  • It didn't seem to work :(


     


    Bitdefender is still asking to reboot even after repairing.  Driving me nuts


  • Hello,


     


    Please use the Bitdefender uninstall tool to clean the machine from any Bitdefender files.


    http://www.bitdefender.com/uninstall


    Afterwards proceed to install the product from Central, this way you will install the 2017 version of the product.


  • Thanks Sorin - I hope it resolves the reboot issue.

This discussion has been closed.