Working in another Window while program updates or installs

Is this ok to do or is it better to allow a program to update or install while not doing anything with no other Windows open

 

if you have multiplecore processor and HDD 5400 and higher you can easily serf in internet, open folders, maybe even open notepad. but better don't start heavy applications including Word to prevent fragmenting hard drive or slowing installation.

 

My netbook doesn't like it, but I have no problems when using this machine. On the whole it doesn't matter too much if you carry on using your computer whilst instaling/updating other programs, all it does most of the time is cause the install to take slightly longer. As James D states, it really depends on your machine capabilities.

 

do whatever you want, either you would feel that it has slowed to a point of not usable(which would force you to stop anyway) or you may get into some rare cases where the update needs to change files that happens to be locked and being warned(or it will defer to the next reboot which is the case of well written modern installer).

no harm in either case. fragmentation is not something that needs to be worried about as that can be optimized(if it really is that bad) afterwards or during regular schedule.

 

Except above described disadvantages lifespan of hard drive may be reduced (it depends on applications, occupancy of HDD... you will never now how much... and you may not feel that if smth else in laptop will die faster...) so thats and other reasons makes you see attention "Please close all running applications while installing..."

 

Never had an issue doing that - already on a single core laptop (1,6GHz Pentium M).

There could be an issue with fragmentation - although I'm not entirely sure that's valid - most programmes actively run in the RAM and don't need regular HDD/SSD access.

-> The key issue generally has been, "what happens if the installer needs a file that's in use" -> but if the installer does not need a file that's in use by a program, that program can't interfere with the installer.