this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/shutdown

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

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.