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I learned from this question why, but is there a way to identify which services need to be restarted so that a PC reboot can be avoided?

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Rebooting to solve a problem is not the same thing as rebooting to complete the installation of a software update. Typically a reboot is required after installing a software update because at least one of the files to be updated was in use; rebooting allows the file to be replaced before it is used again. But to answer your question (sort of): try WhyReboot.

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That is true for Windows but not for linux/unix; on linux it's perfectly possible to replace a library that's in use by a new one. The filesystem will keep the on-disk data of the old, deleted version around as long as that old library version is in use by at least one application, but will assign the filename to the new version of the file (which will be used by every application that tries to use it afterwards). In many cases that makes a reboot unnecessary... – JanC Aug 24 '10 at 6:02
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BTW: of course replacing a kernel does require a reboot (or at least a restart of everything), but for most library upgrades a reboot isn't required. – JanC Aug 24 '10 at 6:06
Thanks fellas for the information..+ 1 – Ravisha Aug 24 '10 at 6:13
@JanClaeys: Providing, of course, you also restart those applications that are using the buggy library so they get the fixes as well. – Richard Aug 24 '10 at 8:32
Well, the applications will keep working without the fixes too, e.g. bugs might not impact all users of a library, and then there is no urgent reason to restart those applications that don't use the problematic functions. Anyway, the real point is that on Windows, an install often isn't done completely until after a reboot (it has to run part of the install after a reboot, and has special hooks in the OS for allowing to do that early enough in the boot proces that the library isn't in use again(!)). – JanC Aug 25 '10 at 2:40
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