No Aircraft
Dispatch Dispatcher
Workload; Troubleshooting; Confusion; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Procedure; Human Factors; Equipment / Tooling
The PC at Desk 33 displayed a window which indicated that Windows would perform a complete shutdown and restart which would occur at the end of a 3 minute timer.The shutdown could not be canceled and; in fact; did occur at the end of the timer. I was the only Dispatcher on duty at the time; and flights were still airborne when I was forced to close all programs.  This disruption certainly caused a loss of situational awareness and definitely created a potential safety issue. I suggest we disable automatic restarts for Dispatch PCs.
A Dispatcher reported that a Dispatch PC performed a Windows complete shutdown which could not be stopped. His communications with airborne flights were disrupted.