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

2013-03-14T00:29:34+00:00

Thank you, this was very helpful.
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Anonymous

2013-03-14T00:29:07+00:00

Dude, I TOTALLY get what you mean. I can't believe MS still does this. I came back to my work computer to find it rebooted because of an update. I had a bunch of work not saved.

I know MS likes to tout how much their software makes people more efficient, but have they ever stopped to count how much work gets LOST by automatic reboots? Apparently not...
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Anonymous

2013-03-08T23:32:25+00:00

Why on earth would I care about the End User License Agreement? This is not a legal question, it's a technical matter. They could write in their EULA that they reserve the right to be unpleasant to their customers, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to be unpleasant. They can write they are not responsible for bugs, but that doesn't change the fact that a bug is still a bug. The restart atrocity is not a bug, just poor design.

I have no other choice than approving the EULA anyway.

Approving automatic updates does not mean approving automatic restarts. A restart is something completely different.

The way the automatic restart is implemented in Windows 7 is atrocious. The computer does not belong to Microsoft, it belongs to the customer. Hence, it's up to the customer to decide what is the best moment for restart, not Microsoft. Fortunately, it can be fixed in the Register. As they've modified it in Windows 8, it means they've understood it was badly made in Windows 7.

At least they could have given the user the option to choose between immediate and postponed restart, as it does once the Register has been modified.
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Anonymous

2013-03-08T18:47:20+00:00

You are not asked during installation or at any other time if you want Windows to restart automatically after installing updates.

Fact: When you install Windows (i.e., when you first start your brand-new computer), you're asked to approve the Windows EULA. In that EULA is a section about enabling Automatic Updates (AU).

If/when AU is enabled & set to the default Automatic configuration (or you've approved the download/install of an update), you've tacitly given MS permission to restart your computer after installing the update, if necessary.

Win8 introduces a somewhat updated AU functionality [1] but AU may restart your computer when necessary anyway.

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[1] cf. http://www.accessible-devices.com/Windows8Update.htm
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