The interruptions like that make me wish that Windows had a "don't interrupt me" mode, where it could block all types of things from interrupting the foreground app.

For instance, sometimes if there is an ordinary Windows Update pending, windows8 will put a giant stripe across the center of the screen and darken the rest of the screen in order to tell me about it. If this happens when I'm giving a presentation, or during a performance when I'm using the laptop to display my chord charts, or when I change careers and become a weatherman, it's disastrous.