Why isn't the Windows 7 Restart Manager reducing restarts?

Question

I jumped right from Windows XP to running Windows 7 (RTM) and one of things I was most eagerly anticipating was the highly touted Restart Manager. This system feature, introduced in Vista, was supposed to reduce the number of restarts required to apply updates by allowing the coordinated restart of all but the most critical system services.

However, I've been running Windows 7 for a week now, and I've had to restart (literally) for every update added by Windows Update. I've even had to restart for updates to Office 2007! What gives? I'm beginning to wonder if I need to explicitly turn the Restart Manager on or something...

Answer 1

There is this small tool called WhyReboot that tries to figure out
why the Windows system needs to reboot (what is locked and needs a boot to change).

Have not tried it on Windows 7, but its likely to work.
Might help you in identifying the reasons for reboot in each instance.
(Including the article itself on that link)

Answer 2

Give it time; it will take many years until most applications make use of the Restart Manager. Once Windows 7 is the most common version of Windows in use, expect programmer to start using the Restart Manager.

I think the Restart Manager is unlikely to come into its own before Windows 9 (or 10) due to the time it takes to get installers rewritten.

Answer 3

Based on the information for Using Restart Manager, it seems this is geared towards third party installations and not to system updates. It would seem logical that MS would want to apply the same rules to a system update, but this may be pending for a future release.