George Orwell would have identified with the Big Brother tendencies of Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system.

I switched on my laptop tonight, and wondered why everything was so slow. I popped out of the room and came back to find a message that Windows was going to restart in moments. Panicking – I did NOT want my computer to turn itself off – I clicked ‘postpone’. I then went to turn the kettle on, got distracted – and returned to a dark screen as the laptop restarted itself.

GRRRRR!

It turned out that Vista was installing updates – without asking me if I wanted them, or getting me to decide whether I wanted the laptop restarted.

I presume there’s a way of taking back control. But this kind of software rudeness does nothing to endear Microsoft to me. Now, where’s Apple’s website?