This is incorrect…ish. Windows, yes even 10, has had a feature for a while now called Automatic Restart Sign-on (ARSO). You can enable this feature by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign in options > "Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in".
After enabling it, a reboot will restore… some apps (hence the ‘ish’), these apps being mostly Microsoft apps (Edge, Word, Outlook, Notepad etc) + some third-party apps (I know Firefox gets restored, not sure about others).
You can also use the shutdown /g command to test this (after enabling ARSO):
/g Fully shuts down and restarts the computer. On restart, if Automatic Restart Sign-On is enabled, the device automatically signs in and locks based on the last interactive user. After sign in, it restarts any registered applications.
Well that’s handy. I wonder what determines if it can relaunch a program or not. Does it retain your actual work state though, or just relaunch those programs? On my MacBook if I tell it to restore stuff when I shut down then it takes me back to exact same state, sans some VPN logins. Unsaved text editor files will still be there, whatever I had open in vs code will be active, all my browser tabs will restore, etc… It acts more like a hibernate than a shutdown.
Yep it does restore application state as well, but it’s a bit of a hit-and-miss. Notepad is restored surprisingly well - including unsaved text and multiple windows; Firefox and Edge browser tabs are restored; unsaved Word docs are restored as well but oddly enough, Outlook’s state isnt restored (although it does save any unsaved drafs).
I’m guessing some sort of resume/restartable support is needed from the app as well for this to work properly. I imagine modern “UWP” apps would just work, but some additional coding might be needed for traditional win32 apps. Like Adobe Reader for instance, it doesn’t get restored at all.
This is incorrect…ish. Windows, yes even 10, has had a feature for a while now called Automatic Restart Sign-on (ARSO). You can enable this feature by going to
Settings > Accounts > Sign in options > "Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in".After enabling it, a reboot will restore… some apps (hence the ‘ish’), these apps being mostly Microsoft apps (Edge, Word, Outlook, Notepad etc) + some third-party apps (I know Firefox gets restored, not sure about others).
You can also use the
shutdown /gcommand to test this (after enabling ARSO):/g Fully shuts down and restarts the computer. On restart, if Automatic Restart Sign-On is enabled, the device automatically signs in and locks based on the last interactive user. After sign in, it restarts any registered applications.https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/shutdown
Well that’s handy. I wonder what determines if it can relaunch a program or not. Does it retain your actual work state though, or just relaunch those programs? On my MacBook if I tell it to restore stuff when I shut down then it takes me back to exact same state, sans some VPN logins. Unsaved text editor files will still be there, whatever I had open in vs code will be active, all my browser tabs will restore, etc… It acts more like a hibernate than a shutdown.
Yep it does restore application state as well, but it’s a bit of a hit-and-miss. Notepad is restored surprisingly well - including unsaved text and multiple windows; Firefox and Edge browser tabs are restored; unsaved Word docs are restored as well but oddly enough, Outlook’s state isnt restored (although it does save any unsaved drafs).
I’m guessing some sort of resume/restartable support is needed from the app as well for this to work properly. I imagine modern “UWP” apps would just work, but some additional coding might be needed for traditional win32 apps. Like Adobe Reader for instance, it doesn’t get restored at all.