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
    2013-01-15T19:00:55+00:00

    Same here. I work as an editor, saving but constantly tweaking, too, on several different documents at a time..  I lost a ton of work when I took my lunch break and came back to find it had rebooted without my permission because of an update, and I got no auto-recover prompts.  OMG, talk about rage.  If the power goes out, at least I stand a chance of retrieving my work.  If Windows is involved, I just wasted a night's worth of work.  I could have thrown the computer out the window, but it wasn't Dell's fault.  It was wonderful Windows.

    .

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-01-15T20:36:07+00:00

    "OMG, talk about rage.  If the power goes out, at least I stand a chance of retrieving my work.  If Windows is involved, I just wasted a night's worth of work.  I could have thrown the computer out the window, but it wasn't Dell's fault.  It was wonderful Windows."

    I checked out the suggestions about gpedit.msc and looked for keys to: 

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

    but no joy, so I never install the updates until I'm ready to turn the computer off overnight.  Mostly, it will remind you about the updates before shutting down, but not always - Microsoft hasn't even been able to get that right all the time! 

    It would have been nice to install the updates during the day so that when it's rebooted at a convenient time or shut down for the night, it would be ready to go.  But having had the computer restart without permission, I'll never. ever again install updates from Microsoft until I'm ready to shut down or restart the computer myself.

    I've also (having read the reviews) decided to decline the offer of a $15 upgrade to Windows 8, despite the umpteen emails from Microsoft asking: What are you waiting for! 

     

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-03-08T18:13:58+00:00

    I guess we now learned to SAVE OUR WORK! BTW, when you set up your computer it asks you specifically if you want them to do it for you or if you want to do it manually, OH, another lesson! READ THE INFORMATION ON INSTALL SCREENS BEFORE SPEED PRESSING NEXT!

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-03-08T18:26:31+00:00

    It appears to be you who haven't read what this discussion is about. You are not asked during installation or at any other time if you want Windows to restart automatically after installing updates. That's what it's about. You are only asked if you want to install the updates automatically or not, but it's not the installation that is the problem, it's the automatic restart. You need to update the Register to stop this destructive behaviour. It's fixed on Windows 8 where you have two or three days to restart yourself before Windows does it.

    So, another lesson, read what a discussion is about before commenting and berating others.

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