Whilst I agree it's not ideal...
... it's the most practical answer to a lot of problems. It takes a maximum of 10 minutes to reboot (worst case scenario with lots of tray icon crap) - any longer definitely warrants investigation - and when it comes to random little problems it solves them 99% of the time.

As someone earlier said, without knowing the source code to every application and driver, how are we supposed to know why it did the random thing that it did? Whilst it's friendly and reassuring to run straight to their desk with a concerned expression on your face and hold the user's hand, ultimately all you can do is spend *more* than 10 minutes going "hmm. Mmm. Oh dear. Mmm" - and then reboot it for them. Sometimes we're too busy with other things!
(There are exceptions, like if they can't save or something and would lose a day's work)

That said, what I don't do is tell people to reboot if they have the same problem on any kind of even semi regular basis. I say "rebooting it will probably cure the problem, but if it happens again let me know and we'll investigate further". As if it happens more than once or twice, it's then a significant nuisance and stopping them from doing their work, and warrants the extra time spent analysing logs / running scans / rebuilding etc.
(Cloudane, Wed 30 Sep 2009, 13:21, Reply)