Disable Windows Update automatic reboots
I’m sure that almost everyone has experienced this at least once before; you’re working on your computer and Windows Update downloads and installs an update for you in the background (you may not even notice it) and then all of a sudden you get a notification that you have to reboot your system, no exceptions!
It’s a real hassle to try and constantly postpone the reboot, not to mention if you’re not at your computer it will just reboot it for you and you could lose any unsaved work! The solution is actually quite simple! Unlike some other sites I’ve seen, the proper solution is not to install and run some 3rd party program that’s sole purpose is to watch for the reboot dialog box and simluate pressing on the postpone button… the thought of ever having to make a 3rd party program to solve a problem in another program is absolutely revolting; that’s the worst solution to a problem you could ever come up with and I’m rather amazed anyone ever even thought of it as a viable option.
The real solution is to change a Windows policy specifically created to solve this problem (yep, that’s right – Microsoft anticipated this would be a feature some may want to disable and gave us a way out… it’s just not available in any easy to use control panel interfaces). We have two choices here: we can fire up the Windows Policy Editor and change it there, or we can just edit the setting directly within the registry. I find modifying the registry directly to be much easier and quicker since it allows a simple 2-click process to change the setting; much easier than having to run a program and find the setting to change it.
All you have to do is download a registry file I created, disable-update-reboot.reg, and right click it and select Merge (as Administrator). You can edit the file to verify that it’s only modifying one string in the registry and that it’s not installing anything malicious. This will disable the Windows Update reboot message from forcing you to reboot. It doesn’t get rid of the message entirely, just prevents it from rebooting automatically without your consent.