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
2013-05-19T10:15:02+00:00 It doesn't control your computer, it has default settings.
If you choose not to change them, that's down to you.
You might as well say "How dare you, Ford, control my car stereo? It's got all these stations on I don't want to listen to." RTFM and make the changes if you're not happy with the defaults.
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Anonymous
2013-05-19T11:40:53+00:00 No, the trouble is it has no user settings to tell it not to restart by its own decision, so the user who doesn't know which registry setting to change, and how, really has the feeling that Windows controls the computer more than the user. It's not a default setting, it's a mandatory setting the users can't change without messing around in the registry. Nothing to do with car radios. Quite naturally, a number of users will complain about such idiotic, destructive and hostile behaviour by Microsoft.
They've fixed it in Windows 8, so they've understood it wasn't very clever.
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Anonymous
2013-05-19T12:39:30+00:00 It doesn't control your computer, it has default settings.
If you choose not to change them, that's down to you.
You might as well say "How dare you, Ford, control my car stereo? It's got all these stations on I don't want to listen to." RTFM and make the changes if you're not happy with the defaults.
"You might as well say "How dare you, Ford, control my car stereo?"
What a pitifully stupid analogy.
To make it equivalent, the radio would announce that it's going to jam on the brakes and then start the engine all over again, regardless of where you're at (even if you're cruising at 65 MPH on the highway). My analogy isn't perfect either, but it's light years ahead of the original one.
"RTFM"? What effing manual? In fact, there isn't one you fool! And, er, why tell me to make changes then get mad at me for it? That's just what I did.
You know, it might help if you think before you reply to a post. Just a suggestion.
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Anonymous
2013-06-15T19:38:13+00:00 f*****g windows, restarted my machine without giving me an option to cancel reboot. it destroyed all my work. i tried to go to control panel and changed the setting to let me choose when to update, but it still shut down. it used to have an option where you could select and say not now, but postphone, but the super clever nuts at microsoft seemed to have stopped that option.!!!!