curious about programs installs

ennogs · 12 Oct 2009 at 20:19

I know nothing about programming but have always been curious about a few things.

Why when installing certain programs do you have to close all open programs?

Why when installing some programs like MSN messnger do you not get told to close all open programs?

Why can you use some programs straight away after install and other programs say you have to reboot the PC first?

MagicBoy · 12 Oct 2009 at 20:24

It's mainly down to shared library files. eg Visual C++ runtime, .Net, DirectX. It's best practice to make sure that the library files are not in use, otherwise the other apps using it might fall over if you install a significantly updated version. You then need a reboot to make sure that everything gets registered and restarted properly.

ennogs · 12 Oct 2009 at 23:05

Thanks

topbanana · 13 Oct 2009 at 14:34

You only need to reboot if any of the shared files are already in use. The files are then scheduled to be updated before any of the other programs get a chance to use them.