Posted by on Jun 16th, 2006 -
Subscribe Mood: remove
KeyWords: remove, automatic, updates, restart, windows
Remove Automatic Restart After Windows Updates
by FrosT
Introdcution
Windows has always been a pain in the butt. Today's story is no different. Everyone who has a Windows machine has Windows Update, which chances are is turned to on. In the past few months I noticed Windows added an extra annoyance to Windows Updates. Anytime you install a Windows Update that requires you to restart your computer, you must restart it or be annoyed with a pop-up message every 10 minutes that gives you 5 minutes to decline or have your Windows system reboot automatically. Well thanks to some careful internet searching I have found your solution!
Windows, Let Me Chose to Restart!
Well I for one have been fed up with Windows Updates automatic restart from day one. Once I found out that it will reboot my computer, even if I am not there, really ticked me off. Reason being is I like to convert AVI files to MPG for burning onto a DVD. Well the process for converting an AVI file to an MPG file can be time consuming, so it requires at least 1 hour for a 400 MB AVI file. What I do is start the conversion process in the morning and when I get home for work viola my AVI file has been successfully converted to an MPG file, or has it? Well Windows Update has screwed me many times, enough to where I disabled Windows Update completely. I do not like the fact that I will not ever receive any more updates because now I am potentially vulnerable.
After months of searching for maybe a registry hack to disable this automatic restart after Windows Update, updates I finally found the solution. Yes, I am going to be nice enough to share the information on how you can prevent Windows Update from automatically restarting your personal computer!
Removing the Automatic Restart After Windows Updates
Just a short disclaimer, I will take no responsibility for any action you chose to take regarding this article. After you read this article, you are liable for any adverse effects this may cause to yours or someone else's computer.
Alright, first off let's click the Start button. Once the menu pulls up we can click on "Run". Now you should have a field to type in, let's type "gpedit.msc" and hit enter. Once the screen comes up click the + next to "Local Group Policy" than "Computer Configuration" than "Administrative Template" than click on the "Windows Updates" folder. In here you will find a bunch of different variables. If you click on them in the right pane there should be some definitions of what each one does. I will not go in-depth on all of them because you can obviously read. The key we are looking for is "No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates Installations". Right click on that value and hit properties. Now click on Enabled, than hit "Apply" and "Ok". Now close the Console1 window. It will prompt you to save, choose "Yes" and than "Save". Now that you have saved the settings a reboot is necessary for the policy to take effect.
Ending Notes
Now you have successfully stopped Windows Updates from automatically restarting your computer after updates have been installed. If you have any contributions to make to this tutorial feel free to do so. Breathe easier as you can now have your computer fully updated all the time without having to re-boot!
Posted by s0rry on June 22nd, 2006
I only have a minute but i just wanted to ask how you stopped... I can't get him to stop and it's really killing me on the inside because I know he's ruining his life with everything.
Thanks...
Posted by imaginary on June 23rd, 2006
I find your blogs very informative, in a jargon-illiterate sort of way. It gives me hope that I may one day understand technology.
<('o')>
Posted by lucylou on June 26th, 2006
thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! this has been happening to me at work...then, when i go to lunch it will restart. soooo annoying!
many thanks! =)
ps. i'm lindsay. nice to meet you!
Posted by anonymous on July 14th, 2006
just a small update to this, the local policy path is as follows on SP2 machines.
LOCAL COMPUTER POLICY -> COMPUTER CONFIGURATION -> ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES -> WINDOWS COMPONENTS -> WINDOWS UPDATE
Also by clicking yes to the save after closing it you are saving a default MSC file when really you should NOT be doing this and really making and creating your own.
Posted by anonymous on July 17th, 2006
this does not work on windows 2000?? 
Posted by frost on July 17th, 2006
Screw windows 2000, update your OS.
--FrosT
Posted by anonymous on August 13th, 2006
Thank you SO much. I always leave AIM open with an away message overnight so that people can still send me messages while I'm asleep... well Windows Update just cloeses the program and I never get the messages. BUT NO MORE THANKS TO YOU!!
Wow Windows really sucks sometimes... but Mac can really suck sometimes too... that's why I've got both 
Posted by anonymous on August 28th, 2006
(First sorry for my english but i am from austria)
For OS Win2000.
If there isn´t Windows update in Administrative Template,
1. Right-click on Administrative Templates and choose Add/Remove Templates….
2. Click Add…, and choose wuau.adm
3. Click Close. Windows Update should show up in the list now.
Posted by anonymous on October 05th, 2006
Cheers to the Austrian guy! -tga
Posted by anonymous on January 12th, 2007
The method using Group Policy Editor (gpedit) will only work on Windows XP Professional Edidion as gpedit is NOT included in Windows XP Home Edition.
However, one another method using Registry Editor and that should work on all XP versions is this:
1. Navigate to the registry key HKLMSOFTWARE
PoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdateAU.
(create the key(s) if not exist)
2. Change the value "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers" to "1".
(create as a new dword value if not exist)
Posted by anonymous on January 12th, 2007
Ooopss (slashes were deleted)....
The registry key path in my previous commend should be:
HKLM -> SOFTWARE ->
Policies -> Microsoft -> Windows -> WindowsUpdate -> AU.
Posted by anonymous on April 13th, 2007
ooh! suck sexy answers!
Posted by anonymous on April 15th, 2007
Have been trying for ages to stop automatic reboot on windows 2000 and the Austrian guy has solved the problem that I could not find anywhere else - many thanks
Posted by david on April 23rd, 2007
Becouse of automatic updates my recovery process flopped, I really hate you Micro$oft.
Posted by anonymous on May 10th, 2007
This is fantastic for anyone who leaves their computer running unattended for CAD rendering or any other processor intensive tasks. It's so frustrating to see the 12 hour job you left going the night before has been wasted. Thanks!
Posted by anonymous on May 24th, 2007
Same go's for an backupmachine that autoreboots and stops the bachup routine, many thanks
Posted by anonymous on May 26th, 2007
hmmm. The regedit operation above didn't work. I went to HKLM -> SOFTWARE ->
Policies -> Microsoft -> Windows but Windowsupdate wasn't there. Damn
Posted by anonymous on June 15th, 2007
Didn't work for me for the same reason.
Posted by anonymous on July 03rd, 2007
Thank god for this, this has been annoying me for ever, thank you thank you.
Posted by anonymous on July 12th, 2007
Thanks for the useful tip!
Posted by anonymous on September 22nd, 2007
Many thanks. Windows is incredibly annoying in so many ways and this helps to make it slightly less so.
Posted by anonymous on October 11th, 2007
Just last night it did it too me. It somehow screwed my outlook. Thankyou for this information.May the Computer angel of good fortune smile on you, if you ever have to fight with technology.
Posted by anonymous on October 11th, 2007
Why wouldn't you simply do the following:
Start
control panel
Security Center
Automatic Updates
click "Notify me but don't automatically download or install item"
Apply
OK
That way, you are completely in charge of when updates are installed and its restarts.
I despise microsoft too, but this seems much simpler
Posted by anonymous on October 17th, 2007
Local Computer Policy
Computer Configuration
Administrative Templates
Windows Components
Windows Update
thats the path I had to take, to get to the No restarts. Very minor change can change for maybe everyone.
Posted by anonymous on November 20th, 2007
hi,
how to remove directory temp in windows after restart.
i mean like cron linux
so, directory temp will be always empty
thanks
Posted by anonymous on November 28th, 2007
After doing the Group Policy update open a cmd prompt and type:
gpupdate /Force
This will reload the Group Policy on the machine and should prevent you from needing to reboot the system after doing this process.
Thanks.
Posted by anonymous on December 14th, 2007
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers"=dword:00000001
Posted by anonymous on March 12th, 2008
thanx for this
Posted by anonymous on June 02nd, 2008
on October 11th, 2007
Why wouldn't you simply do the following:
Start
control panel
Security Center
Automatic Updates
click "Notify me but don't automatically download or install item"
Apply
OK
That way, you are completely in charge of when updates are installed and its restarts.
I despise microsoft too, but this seems much simpler
THANK YOU!!! This method is sooo much more simple than everyone made it out to be, I could never follow the above described registry paths for Windows (Home) XP. Hopefully the problem is solved!
Posted by anonymous on June 17th, 2008
GR8 info and totall investigation... thx for putting this on public!!
Posted by anonymous on July 09th, 2008
Thanks to everyone involved in this! - I couldn't believe that Microsoft had the audacity to assume that they knew better then the user in terms of when to forcibly reboot a machine. I work in developing heavily numerical routines, and a machine that decides to reboot at will .... say no more...!
I'm running W2K and I've no plans to 'upgrade' to XP - so an extra thanks to those of you who persevered with the W2K thread.
PS: comments such as: "Screw windows 2000, update your OS." - are really unhelpful and totally unproductive. If one has the compulsion to always clamber to use the latest M$ offering, then good luck. But some of us don't do this for good reasons - you might like to consider that before making such comments..!?
Posted by anonymous on August 14th, 2008
Thank you so much for the solution. It is heartbroken to see my program intended to run for 48hr to be interrupted due to the d**n auto restarting. Now I can sleep in peace.
Posted by anonymous on August 15th, 2008
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > WindowsUpdate > Auto Update > NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers
And modify it to give it a hex value of 1. If it doesn't exist, make a new DWORD with that name first.
Posted by anonymous on August 15th, 2008
easier way for XP :start menu press run and Type "services.msc" in the box and press Enter. Scroll down the list that appears to the item "Automatic Updates". Right-click that item and choose "Stop". All done. No more notice.
Posted by anonymous on August 20th, 2008
Thanks very much indeed for taking the time to document this - it has been driving me nuts for ages!
Posted by anonymous on August 28th, 2008
I manage a network with Windows Server Update Service and the "Notify me but don't automatically download or install item" option would never work becuase I would have users installing their own updates. I use Domain policies to auto download/install the approved updates in conjunction with the "No Auto Restart" policy to keep the PCs from rebooting on the users. I also use Group Policy to remove the restart balloon. For some reason the PC just started rebooting again and the policy has not changed. All was working and then about 3 weeks ago POOF! no more. Any suggestions.
Posted by anonymous on September 10th, 2008
Thank you, I had almost lost hours of work b/c of Microsoft. I am soooooo glad that I use OpenOffice.org, which auto recovers and that you told me this...I will spread the word!
Posted by anonymous on September 23rd, 2008
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Posted by anonymous on September 25th, 2008
Many thanks for this information, It is really useful, because I arrive this morning to my computer in order to continue the work from the previous day and what I find was that my two computers suffered the reboot.
Posted by anonymous on October 17th, 2008
cool, thanks
dunno why Microsoft implemented the same idea on windows 2003 server.. I mean.. a server restart every day OMG!
I didn't know you got a 5 min option to cancel... no-one uses a server on console 
Posted by anonymous on October 25th, 2008
I am not techie at all - and most of this was way over my head. I say that before suggesting there might be an easier way
Turn Off Automatic Updates
To turn off automatic updates for your computer:
1. In Control Panel, double-click Automatic Updates.
2. Change the settings to one that doesn't automatically restart
If that isn't right please say so
Posted by anonymous on November 06th, 2008
I think the suggestion of switching off automatic update completely is the most newbie suggestion ever invented. The problem was keeping automatic update working, but disabling the auto restart after. Well, the solutions in this section work perfectly, so why jump in and say "Turn Off Automatic Updates". Why? If people wanted that, don't you think they'd have the intelligence to have already applied that solution to the problem? The problem was far more complicated then your solution assists, because you'd have people not updating their system, not downloading the latest malicious software updates. Nice idea, great, you deserve an award.
Posted by anonymous on November 13th, 2008
> Now that you have saved the settings a reboot is
>necessary for the policy to take effect.
LOL!
Posted by anonymous on November 15th, 2008
sweet. works on Windows FLP as well
another anoying thing i noticed, had my windows updates configured to download but notify me before install. well, on many ocasions i found automatic updates have magically switched back to automatic. frustrating. had 14 virtual machine running on my windows XP when I was not home and machine just rebooted after it installed something and all my virtual machines progress, gone forever.
have not tried this on vista. however the process should be somewhat simmilar.
Posted by anonymous on December 01st, 2008
Thanks a million, I really hate that windows forces you to reboot by default
Posted by anonymous on December 01st, 2008
anonymous
on June 02nd, 2008:
Thank you, that worked great! Incredibly annoying function.
Posted by anonymous on December 23rd, 2008
Thankyou so much, that automatic restart has been driving me nuts! 
Posted by anonymous on January 15th, 2009
Thnx..! it HeLp me! i saLute to yoU.
juNmaR.
Posted by anonymous on January 15th, 2009
(Start->Run and type in "cmd", and type in "net stop wuauserv". This only works for 24 hours though.
Posted by anonymous on February 12th, 2009
Wanted to also add to this. The no autorestart only works if people are logged in. If the machine is just sitting idle with no one logged in, it will reboot anyways after updates. From what I hear this can't be fixed.
Posted by anonymous on February 17th, 2009
thank you very much
Posted by anonymous on March 12th, 2009
While it's imperative in many cases that the user can control the timing of a reboot (within reason), it is erroneous to think that the system is fully patched without needing to reboot. The main reason a reboot is required in most cases is because at least one file is in use and cannot be updated until the system is rebooted. If it is a security related update, especially one that fixes an exploitable flaw, a reboot should be performed asap.
Posted by anonymous on March 12th, 2009
Hi, Thanks so much FrosT, i have bugged up with this.. now its working fine thanks www.aeonity.com tooooo
Posted by anonymous on April 16th, 2009
DUDE! I have had similar problems since day 1 (practically) of my new laptop. But Since almost last summer, I couldnt change my update settings, it kept saying "controlled by the system admin" WHICH WAS ME! Luckily, with the help of your guide, I saw an option in there for update settings, and now i have it back to where it downloads updates, but lets me install them when I want. I have been looking or this solution forever. You are the man!
Posted by anonymous on April 17th, 2009
This guide is really appriciated, thank you!
Posted by anonymous on June 12th, 2009
It's time for a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for this auto restart. Even after you turn it off it somehow gets turned back on eventually.
