Have you ever been sitting at a Windows computer and been informed that an update is available to your OS? And so like a good security-conscious user, you download and install the update, only to be told that you need to reboot for some reason? But then you decide that if you've been running without that update for years, then waiting a few hours until your current work is done shouldn't be a big bother. Except, Windows now pops up a "Restart Now" dialog box every few minutes until you do restart.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to continue running his computer without rebooting. Here's the secret.

Press Windows-R. Type "services.msc" in the box and press Enter. Scroll down the list that appears to the item "Automatic Updates". Right-click that item and choose "Stop". All done. No more notice.

When you do eventually reboot (at your lesiure), the service will restart so that you'll be informed of future updates. But you won't be annoyed for the rest of the session.

Comments

Comment by Pat on .
Pat
You should've just asked. :) Of course, I don't recommend such things, but it's really not meant for people like you and I. It's mostly targetted at typical users who don't remember to restart their machine, and are still vulnerable Also, I should mention that it's always a good idea to update ASAP (and some updates don't take wihtout a reboot). See: http://it.slashdot.org/it/05/08/12/1348250.shtml?tid=172&tid=201
Comment by Yunus on .
Yunus
Thank you so much! I have been running a computer analysis that I didn't want it to be stopped due to an automatic system restart. I was chosing "Restart Later" but getting the same message after a couple of minutes later, which was annoying me.. I did what you described and the problem is solved ! Thanks a bunch!!!
Comment by Colin Findlay on .
Colin Findlay
You can also do this : (Windows XP Pro & Server 2003 only) * In the Start Menu go to Run type “gpedit.msc” and press Enter * Now a Group Policy editor will open. In this window navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Template -> Windows Components -> Windows Update * Double click on No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations * In the settings window Choose Enabled and click OK * Double click on Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations * In the settings window Choose Disabled and click OK * Close Group Policy Editor
Comment by Busy Worker on .
Busy Worker
In this very moment, i have 3 xls opened, an opera browser with 14 windows, adobe reader, winamp, a couple of notepads, a shh session, soon i'll open mapinfo and autocad. And i'm using them all :) If i'd had to restart, i'd have to spend another 20 minutes opening all the apps, and probably i'd curse many people related to mr. Bill. Thank you very much for saving me a lot of trouble. And thank you, google.
Comment by Joe on .
Joe
Best is when you have a simulation or rendering running for work/class, or in my case last night, my alarm clock waiting to wake me up to catch an early morning train, and MS decided that you need 6 new updates overnight and that they have the authority to automatically restart your computer!!! These disable pestering restart requests and auto restart options should not be buried in the admin dialogs and only serve to make me feel like MS things I'm an idiot. I know where the restart button is and should be the only person with the authority to use it. Thanks!
Comment by L on .
L
What a PITA! It should autosave if it's gonna close your work while your away from your desk. Lost a notepad with notes I was building and had to manually search all my trillian history logs to see if anyone had sent me an IM while I was away. I have updated my registry with [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU] "RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled"=dword:00000001 "RebootRelaunchTimeout"=dword:00001440 per http://lifehacker.com/software/top/get-rid-of-windows-update-restart-nag-183976.php so that it will only remind in 24 hours if I haven't yet rebooted on my own free will.
Comment by CyberKenny on .
CyberKenny
"Do not do this. This will stop your Windows from getting updated at all." If you're only stopping the service (either through services.msc or by command line) and not disabling it through services.msc, it will restart itself on your next reboot. This is the point of having an "Automatic" startuptype. Just to clear up :) Oh yeah, thanks :)
Comment by Google Hater on .
Google Hater
dude your a complete moron, and im not at all surprised your site comes up first for this problem on the every becoming lame search engine google. Your instructions disable updates for windows all together. For those of you that would like the proper solution try; 1. Start > Run… > cmd to launch the Command Prompt 2. Type “sc stop wuauserv” without the quotes peace.
Comment by owen on .
owen
Dude, let's look at who's a complete moron: Stopping the service allows it to restart when the computer starts. Disabling the service would prevent it from starting in the future. Perhaps it's easier for people to type the command from the Run box, and that's why the statement also appears in the comments that you didn't read, above. Ending a comment with "peace" after calling them "moron" is the true sign of idiocy here.
Comment by Chris on .
Chris
You can set the number of minutes to display the restart message like this: » In the Start Menu go to Run type 'gpedit.msc' and press Enter » In the Group Policy editor go to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Template -> Windows Components -> Windows Update » Double click on 'Re-propmt for restart with scheduled installations' » In the settings window choose 'Enabled' » In the "restart (minutes)" text box enter 1440 and click OK » Close Group Policy Editor » Restart the computer. Now you will be prompted once per day.
Comment by Kirk on .
Kirk
While this is an old, old post, Chris's comment is right on target...and I would simply add one thing: on machines where I can't really modify the alert interval (or am unwilling to stop the service when I can spend 500ms doing what I'm about to say) I simply grab the far upper-left corner of the update notice and drag it off the far lower-right corner of my screen. This keeps it forever out of view, until I have a chance to restart, and since I can't easily interact with it without dragging it back on-screen...I can ignore it as long as I like and it never pops up another copy. This takes about half a second on servers and workstations, and is a perfect workaround where the environment should be left alone.
Comment by Susan on .
Susan
Great trick and it worked! Gawd! I have a 400g 2nd hard drive formatting two partitions and that damn thing kept popping up. A few times when I was not at the computer Update restarted all by itself, without my permission. Harump! I didn't want that to happen in the middle of this formatting. Thank you so much.