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

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.

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Anonymous

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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123 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-05-21T05:39:15+00:00

Way to cut & paste the whitepaper there again Rob...

Are you talking to me?

With all due respect, the content in my post was my own, thank you very much.

Note: MS MVPs neither represent nor work for Microsoft: We're all volunteers here.

PS: CTRL+B will enable/disable bold and CTRL+I will enable/disable italics.

Dude if that's the way you speak conversationally I'd hate to see you really trying to get a point across...

PS: Not in Firefox it doesn't. Hasn't for years either.

PPS: Not just trolling, but came back after dealing with yet another extremely pissed off user who had lost days of work on the assumption that an OS would ASK before throwing away your edits.
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Anonymous

2012-06-10T04:39:01+00:00

Well, actually in reply to Robert Singer... I am in COMPLETE agreement with you... BUT... you are HALF right about one thing... The computer is yours, but the OS Software is owned by Microsoft... you (for better choice of another word) "rent" it and by the medium (the CD)... from a Linux user where the license is for protecting the user not the programmer... So read into that as to what rights you actually have... I had windows crash on me, and turn the format of my External HD from NTFS to RAW... I reformatted the main drive, and FOUR times from updates, the PC restarted... and I had my externals being scanned for data recovery... I have up... it is a 20 hour process... I will just use my linux pc for productivity, and reserve the Windows PC for my gaming... Microsoft has lot a regular customer... Instead ot trying to control how I use my machine... it should be tailored to be customized for me...
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Anonymous

2012-06-22T02:38:54+00:00

hah, you think that`s bad?

My computer just rebooted in the middle of formatting a harddrive.

This **** is dangerous! Microsoft should fix it.

I wonder if I could sue them if it actually did cause damage to my drive.

I mean, its microsoft themselves stating in windows warning messages you shouldnt turn off the computer when important software is active. Yet their update program does absolutely the opposite.
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