I want to turn off the automatic restart for Windows Update on Windows 7 Home Premium. How do I do this?

Anonymous
2009-11-05T12:57:50+00:00

I went to sleep last night and when I woke up my computer had been restarted.  I did not tell it to restart, I did not want it restarted, and I had documents opened that I cannot recover because it restarted.  It restarted because Windows Update had a single update to install.  I am running Windows 7 Home Premium, so I do not have the group policy editor, and the registry key that some websites mentioned to use to disable the restart is not there.

Keep in mind, I just want to prevent an involuntary restart.  I do not want to turn off Windows Update, and I don't mind being prompted to restart.  I just don't want my computer restarting on its own ever again.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2009-11-05T13:05:29+00:00

In Windows Update, click on change settings. Under Important Updates, select 'Download updates but let me choose whether to install them'. This will give you the control on when to install and restart if required.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-02-03T20:24:26+00:00

    You seem to be talking about a crash. That is not a shutdown but something completely different.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-03T19:37:43+00:00

    IBM systems did shut down automatically.  It was called the blue screen of death.  It's quite ironic that now that they have essentially rid windows of the blue screen of death behavior, they intentionally decided to program the behavior back in.

    Let's give this a name.  How about the "microsoft usability team of death" (MUTOD).

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-12-17T02:44:55+00:00

    I agree with you, microsoift should fix this in the next update.   I wonder how they would like it if someone were to wonder into their office and just start randomly unplugging computers while they are in the middle of whatever it is they do??      Prompting before hijacking would take the piratical sting away..

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