How to implement a uptime-monitoring and forced shutdown after a defined uptime with notifications and countdown [closed]

Setup:

• approx. 1000 windows 10 machines in 4 countries (AD)
• approx. 10% of the users tend to keep PCs running for > 1 week without reboot -> something i consider an issue (i.e. because of Windows Updates for example)

Target:

• ensure machines gets rebooted after an uptime of > x days
• ensure user gets notified X hours before forced shutdown
• ensure user gets notified Y minutes before forced shutdown (in best case with countdown)

Questions:

Which approach would you pick if you would need or want to implement something like this?

Have you already implemented something like this? If so how was the user experience & feedback? Would you do it again?

I'm looking for both technical ideas but as well for experience / stories from other admins who considered or even implemented something similar.

Thanks in advance

Solution 1:

I would not worry at all about a week of uptime in 2021. Windows updates are usually scheduled for the second Tuesday of every month, so from that perspective it doesn't make sense to require weekly reboots either.

What I strongly would recommend to begin with, are two things:

1. Enforce Windows Updates (and their associated reboots) using group policies.
2. Make sure computers can't be accessed when not attended by setting a reasonable group policy for screen saver - say 15 minutes of inactivity or so - and ensure that the setting to require password to unlock the computer after the screensaver activates is turned on. Also train your users to lock their computers when they intend to leave them.