I used to see a lot of people log out and back in and think that was restarting. Still wish Windows had an uptime command

This. "Lets try it again, just to be sure." ::watches them put it to sleep with the soft power button::

Most likely the IT guy thought you were either lying, or are too stupid to actually turn your computer off and on again. Because both is pretty typical for end users. Working in IT with direct contact to "non technical" end users will make you lose your faith in humanity very quickly, because you get to look straight into the deepest abyss of human malice and stupidity all day every day.

I mean... I don't doubt this happens. But, even though I hate Windows with the fire of a thousand suns and don't use it, this is what Group Policy is for

Well is it plugged in?

I don't know how our IT system was set up, I had no access to poke around.

But I think it was a bit relaxed, we knew some users were downloading movies in certain office locations. Told to stop rather than clamping down.

So I think everyone was just left to deal with the update schedule themselves because there were maybe... 2 or 3 desktops in the entire office. Everyone was on laptops and didn't leave them running overnight.

You can check Windows uptime in the taskmanager under the Performance tab.

Spent too long in tech support - The trick with people like this is to move the goal to something that they certainly haven't done before yet still accomplishes the same goal. Here I would honest to God ask the customer to check the pins on the power cable to make sure they're straight. I don't give a damn about those pins but they have to unplug the computer to look.

The real fun is when you can't watch what their doing because its over the phone, so you just have to hope they are doing it right. I used to hit them with the "Let's try this; hold down the power button for exactly 30 seconds, then turn it back on." Worked every time, but I did once have a guy ask me why that worked, and I didn't want to call him an idiot so I made up some BS about it being a way to "flush the power from the system" and he bought it.

I'm mad WMIC is gone. That thing was fucking useful, so of course Microsoft went out of their way to get rid of it.

Though soon to no longer be IT, i guarantee that if you bring them cookies and coffee theyll start to love you

Did you turn it off then on, or restart?

Whaaaat they removed wmic?! I used the crap out of that when I did windows admin.

We installed remote access on all employee computers. Among other details, it allowed us to see machine uptime.

I would tell certain people/liars that I'll fix their problems over lunch and to make sure they save all work before leaving.

Then as lunch came along, I'd just remotely reboot their computer.

Fun fact. "The IT Crowd" is actually a documentary.

The real fun is when you can't watch what their doing because its over the phone, so you just have to hope they are doing it right. I used to hit them with the "Let's try this; hold down the power button for exactly 30 seconds, then turn it back on." Worked every time, but I did once have a guy ask me why that worked, and I didn't want to call him an idiot so I made up some BS about it being a way to "flush the power from the system" and he bought it.

I just say, "Let's go ahead and try it again so I can check that box off."

I'm mad WMIC is gone. That thing was fucking useful, so of course Microsoft went out of their way to get rid of it.