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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  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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  3. 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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  4. Anonymous
    2012-03-14T03:46:21+00:00

    Thank you Aberrance. The long explanation is very clear and detailed. You deserve kudos. Who doesn't instead is Microsoft: This Win7 is a huge flop fiasco disaster whatever you want to call it..

    I hibernate my laptop night before with a lot of web pages for my researches open. I switch it on in the morning and just after resuming from hibernation it ... it reboots!!!! Because of MS updates!!!  AAARRRRGGGHHH !!!!

    I had to exercise a lot of self control not to "fresbee" the laptop out from the window..

    Sorry, but this is really a no-no-no feature....

    No, it's not a feature, it's a disease, a worm/malware evil thing who needs to be eradicated.

    Microsoft do a patch to avoid this! Ask your users if  it's ok to reboot !!

    By side this Win7 really unblows (contrary of blows?).

    Just to say: the CTRL+ALT+DEL takes ages to take control (is real ring zero ?), why ? In the old times it was lightning fast..

    If this new Win8 is going to smell like this Win7, I guess then it's really time to move somewhere else for next desktop OS.

    First thing I will try is the CTRL+ALT+DEL responsiveness.

    Second if it will reboot without my express consent (I deserve at least 2 clicks to confirm reboot!)

    Thanks.

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