How do I stop Windows Update from restarting my computer in Windows 7 Home Premium?

Not to perform forum Necromancy, but generally only updates that include security hotfixes will attempt to reboot your computer without user interaction.  The reason Microsoft sets this policy by default is to prevent your computer from being hacked by a new exploit or virus, and because many users will simply keep postponing a needed reboot for days - I know one guy who just kept clicking "postpone" for almost four weeks before he actually rebooted after an update.  While I agree that these forced reboots can be most inconvenient, and could possibly have been handled better, it would be more irresponsible of Microsoft if they allowed an unsupervised PC to become a botnet zombie because no one was around to hit OK on the reboot prompt.

ToddAU, read the thread more carefully.  There are multiple ways to accomplish this, other than disabling updates entirely.  Here's another page that includes even easier ways to disable after-update reboots. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/prevent-windows-update-from-forcibly-rebooting-your-computer/

DO NOT turn off automatic updates.  Automatic updates are the primary line of defense against new exploits that have been discovered "in the wild," so to speak.  Simply follow the instructions to disable automatic reboots after updates, but DON'T turn off the updates entirely.

I have to say that I have always had the worst technical support experience with Microsoft.  Almost every bug I report ends up being closed with a "by design" or a "unable to reproduce".  Which may seem reasonable, except that no sane person would design bugs into their software and being unable to reproduce means that the question is open, not that it is closed.  In any case, I say this because Debbie C.'s response to Lucy is absurd.  The article pointed to has nothing to do with the question.  Her byline "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..." is very telling.  It's a great way to justify poor support with a "clear" conscience.

WHY DOES WINDOWS AUTOMATICALLY RESTART MY COMPUTER?

I like automatic updates, but there seems to me to be two distinct activities being treated as one.  1) download and install updates

2. restart my computer to apply updates

I have lost work twice now because of this.  I'm really turned off from microsoft because there is not an easy way to make this change (well that and a thousand other reasons that display a failure to adequately handle the complexity of an operating system).  I HAVE LOST WORK TWICE BECAUSE OF THIS.  Not only do I lose work, but Visual Studio 2010 loses all my tool-window docking settings even though those have been in place for multiple shutdowns.  It's very annoying to have to reopen and position my tool windows because WINDOWS decides to shut down when I stepped away from my desk for coffee.  I mean, SERIOUSLY, who thought of this???  Who thought it was okay to shut a person's computer down (by design) without their awareness while they have unsaved documents.  I mean, dialogues pop up asking if you want to save your document while Windows is forcing the shutdown and if you aren't there, it just kills the entire process.

THIS IS A BUG or the result of the thought process of a bug.

All I would like is a little checkbox on popup that is informing me that it is going to shut down in 10 minutes that allows me to modify that to (up to) 4 hours, that allows me to TURN OFF AUTOMATIC RESTARTING during AUTOMATIC UPDATING.

Sorry for the ire, but losing work sucks.  Seeing that the company that charges $200+ bucks for their software and leaves bugs sit in it for years and years sucks even more.  This behavior is great "for the many" non-content creators.  But for those of us (FEW?) who use our WINDOWS computers to make things, this behavior is unacceptable!!!!!

-Jerome

JeremyMcLeod,

I can possibly accept a choice to make Automatic Restarting after Automatic Updating a default, but it should be very easy to change that behavior (since that behavior can result in lost work, which means lost money for me and/or my employer).  I should not have to dig around in the registry to change a setting that should be made visible in the user interfaces that are provided for managing my system (I have Windows 7 Home Premium which doesn't include gpedit.msc).  Otherwise, let's make things consistent and get rid of all the user interfaces and we can just root around in the registry every time we want to change some setting.  But of course that is absurd.  I understand an associated cost would be big management interfaces, but you know what, I think that's okay... it would sure be better than... THE REGISTRY!  It's all about how they are organized and embedded visually.  The registry is, in my opinion, is just a poorly designed (designed by a programmer and never vetted by a UI team) generic interface for managing our computer settings.

-Jerome