Windows 8 Pro on a Surface Pro 2 (don't jump on my for this....yet, since I will admit it could be a tablet-specific issue, not Windows 8, but please read the rest first)
I manage a number of client networks, about 99% remotely via RDP, physically going into the office only to install printers, etc. I do much of my work at night to avoid interfering with users' schedules. They just leave the computers turned on but logged off at night, and I do updates, etc remotely via RDP. A few of them now have Windows 8.1 computers. An even smaller number are Surface Pro devices.
I ran updates on a Surface Pro 2 last night, and all was fine until the reboot. Then it would not connect to the local WiFi network until after a user had arrived in the office and logged onto the tablet. It then ran the updates pending upon reboot...and this happened again on the next update that was over 1 GB.
I can understand a firmware update having something like this, since it might involve updating FW for the WiFi NIC, but there was no FW update in the next round of updates. It seems as though any updates that cannot be fully installed until after a reboot prevent WiFi connectivity until after logon.
This is not a show-stopper; however, it is something of a problem, since it set back today's user an hour or so while he waited for the updates to install, I rebooted, then I had to contact him to log on so the device would connect to the WiFi network again. But next time it could be a critical update that a user needs to have done between midnight and 5:00 am with no time to wait for two rounds of updates to complete when the user arrives onsite.
Outside the context of updates, the device would normally be available on the WiFi network as soon as the reboot is complete.
Is this a "feature" of Windows update under Windows 8, is it tablet-specific (yes, that is the easy answer, but I am just as sure the Surface Pro forum would send me back here if I asked the question there), or is there some other factor? Or is it just one more way in which MS forgot their loyal business users when they developed Windows 8 to try to draw the iPad crowd away from Apple.