How can I permanently stop windows 10 from rebooting for updates?

[Markverhyden]

The biggest problem I have with W10 updates is the unpredictable nature of the update behavior in terms of time to completion. I can have a half dozen machines, happened recently with some W10 Pro POS systems, and some complete in 10-20 minutes and others took well over an 90 minutes. In this case what was even worse is the vendor apparently had done nothing to manage that process. I would have expected them to manage the process through their own managed WSUS.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

You can set active hours that will prevent restarts after updates.. You can set it for up to 18 hours a day.

It rebooted during active hours, I told it that it could reboot when the prompt came up (edit: and it did reboot and install updates), i didnt say anything about it being ok to reboot itself again about an hour later.

Windows 10 updates ONCE A MONTH. If you cannot handle that, you need to not use Windows.

I don't care if it happens once a year, its not acceptable to reboot without my permission.

I'm going to repeat myself, Windows 10 updates ONCE A MONTH. It rarely does so beyond that. So if you're in the second week of the month, and you haven't restarted yet you need to let it do so. If you're going to fire off something that needs to run, just take the extra half a second to click start, settings, then security and updates to see if she's pending a reboot. If she is, reboot her. Get it over with, you'll be gold for another month. It doesn't "just decide" to restart, it nags you for 72 hours and then forces the issue.

P.S. By default she won't reboot ever if an admin is logged in.

I'm always logged in as admin, its rebooted several times in the past while logged in, not while i'm actively using the machine but I was still logged in and important apps were running..

 

[Porthos]

Since it is your computer you might as well disable updates and check yourself on a monthly basis at your convenience. .

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Since it is your computer you might as well disable updates and check yourself on a monthly basis at your convenience. .

Yeah thats what im doing from now on

 

[Porthos]

Yeah thats what im doing from now on

I don't have that need, I dont run anything all the time and have never had Windows restart when I did not expect it to. My active hours work as advertised. Besides I am just waiting for each update and install them as soon as they are released.

 

[Sky-Knight]

The biggest problem I have with W10 updates is the unpredictable nature of the update behavior in terms of time to completion. I can have a half dozen machines, happened recently with some W10 Pro POS systems, and some complete in 10-20 minutes and others took well over an 90 minutes. In this case what was even worse is the vendor apparently had done nothing to manage that process. I would have expected them to manage the process through their own managed WSUS.

This is the primary driver for SSDs everywhere, it's the only way to combat the update times, which can be quite stupid. Server 2016 has similar issues, the update process is single thread only! So you've got servers just sitting there for hours sometimes processing an update because only 1 CPU is working the job.

 

[Sky-Knight]

It rebooted during active hours, I told it that it could reboot when the prompt came up (edit: and it did reboot and install updates), i didnt say anything about it being ok to reboot itself again about an hour later.



I don't care if it happens once a year, its not acceptable to reboot without my permission.



I'm always logged in as admin, its rebooted several times in the past while logged in, not while i'm actively using the machine but I was still logged in and important apps were running..

Funny because I don't have these problems. Every Win10 box updates once a month, the only thing I do special is use a GPO to push stations into the semi-annual channel so feature updates are delayed 5 months.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Funny because I don't have these problems.

Thats not funny, misery loves company.

 

[pctechforhire]

For non-techies, I get it. But for us, I don't like it. *I* will tell the computer when to update. I have things running all the time, and I don't need to lose those tasks simply because Microsoft is trying to protect me from something I don't need protection from.

I've had to disable the update service AND disable/remove the scheduled update tasks. So far, no random reboots.

 

[Powerful]

Hi, you get a fair measure of control from these registry mod's, No forced restarts and you will have to manually check for updates, although some security updates will already be loaded (unless you go further, which defeats the purpose) you still want to receive updates. Nothing is installed unless you OK it, and you have to manually restart(do this when it suits you). I write all my mod's, these are used on millions of computers and are perfectly safe.
Press the win + r keys together in the run box type:-
cmd (press ctrl + shift + enter) an elevated cmd prompt will open.

Copy these cmds and right click anywhere in the cmd prompt window, the cmds will append to the prompt, each one gives a success message. press enter for the last cmd to run. This one disables forced restart for the logged on user.

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v NoAutoUpdate /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v AUOptions /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v ScheduledInstallDay /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v ScheduledInstallTime /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Hi, you get a fair measure of control from these registry mod's, No forced restarts and you will have to manually check for updates, although some security updates will already be loaded (unless you go further, which defeats the purpose) you still want to receive updates. Nothing is installed unless you OK it, and you have to manually restart(do this when it suits you). I write all my mod's, these are used on millions of computers and are perfectly safe.
Press the win + r keys together in the run box type:-
cmd (press ctrl + shift + enter) an elevated cmd prompt will open.

Copy these cmds and right click anywhere in the cmd prompt window, the cmds will append to the prompt, each one gives a success message. press enter for the last cmd to run. This one disables forced restart for the logged on user.

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v NoAutoUpdate /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v AUOptions /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v ScheduledInstallDay /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v ScheduledInstallTime /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Well I know for sure windows 10 doesn't give a crap about NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers, thats what everyones been using for a long time with previous versions of windows.

 

[Powerful]

Hi, not sure where you get restarts in previous versions of windows, you had to make a policy setting through gpedit or a registry mod to effect a restart,(Vista, win 7), unlike 10 which has a restart as default, maybe you didn't get the mod right if you have tried this in 10, as I can confirm it does work.

 

[seedubya]

Buy a Mac...

Best of both worlds - buy a Mac and install Linux on it.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

For non-techies, I get it. But for us, I don't like it. *I* will tell the computer when to update. I have things running all the time, and I don't need to lose those tasks simply because Microsoft is trying to protect me from something I don't need protection from.

I've had to disable the update service AND disable/remove the scheduled update tasks. So far, no random reboots.

Which scheduled update task? I had the service disabled and windows 10 re-enabled it as manual xD

 

[Powerful]

Hi, there are many scheduled tasks you can disable quite safely, (if you know what you are doing) the one referred to is (cmd as admin):-

schtasks /Change /TN "Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\Automatic App Update" /disable

Edit:- should also have mentioned the UsoSvc service, starts automatically and "orchestrates" windows updates. This schedule should also be disabled:-

schtasks /Change /TN "Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Reboot" /disable

If you set the start for this service to 4 you will note no updates window will even populate in settings, so no updates period.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Hi, not sure where you get restarts in previous versions of windows, you had to make a policy setting through gpedit or a registry mod to effect a restart,(Vista, win 7), unlike 10 which has a restart as default, maybe you didn't get the mod right if you have tried this in 10, as I can confirm it does work.

We have been using NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers for many years, it does not work in windows 10, why do you think so many other work around attempts have been posted online? Why do you think people have tried crippling the scheduled reboot task in an attempt to stop it? This is not something I think I know, this is something I am certain of. (edit: well it might work to some extent on some updates but windows 10 can and will ignore it, i don't know the scenarios it ignores it in but I know it will definitely do it)

This one: "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v AUOptions /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

That does help but windows updates even warns you that if they think its an important update it will automatically download and install anyway.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Hi, there are many scheduled tasks you can disable quite safely, (if you know what you are doing) the one referred to is (cmd as admin):-

schtasks /Change /TN "Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\Automatic App Update" /disable

Edit:- should also have mentioned the UsoSvc service, starts automatically and "orchestrates" windows updates. This schedule should also be disabled:-

schtasks /Change /TN "Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Reboot" /disable

If you set the start for this service to 4 you will note no updates window will even populate in settings, so no updates period.

Alright ill give it a try, if it still turns back on ill try blocking it at the router xD

Edit: I had that reboot task disabled before and it turned back on and also removed and replaced with a dummy folder but still windows fixed it xD

 

[bdoggman]

Here! This works awesome!

https://www.sordum.org/9470/windows-update-blocker-v1-1/

 

[pctechforhire]

Which scheduled update task? I had the service disabled and windows 10 re-enabled it as manual xD

... Yeah, I learned this the hard way last week. I'm not happy...

 

[Sky-Knight]

Are you people still whining about a reboot that happens ONCE A BLOODY MONTH?!?

Talk about first world problems... yikes. Patch your crap!