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.
I want to turn off the automatic restart for Windows Update on Windows 7 Home Premium. How do I do this?
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Anonymous
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
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Anonymous
2011-06-19T10:30:20+00:00 I lost of nine hours of computation time overnight last night because of this 'feature'. It should be turned off by default, as you won't realise this is the default until it happens to you.
Sure, give me a really annoying prompt to restart, but don't ever do it without asking. Yet another reason to properly consider switching to Linux.
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Anonymous
2011-05-12T19:37:08+00:00 None of my computers EVER reboot automatically due an update. Then again, I don't have AU set to the Automatic setting either. YMMV.
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Anonymous
2011-05-12T19:24:34+00:00 Reboot daily...so what if there's another 3 or 12 hours until the vunerability is completely removed...probably had to wait a month for it to be fixed already!!!
As above, we're not stupid. Let us decide when to reboot. It rebooted 3/4 of the way through it's own backup. 3 hours lost to that.., start the backup over... Sigh...
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Anonymous
2011-04-27T09:54:19+00:00 - Click Start -> Run
- Enter “gpedit.msc”
...
This answer, whilst correct, will not work for Windows Home Premium as it does not include the local group policy editor.