Tip: Disable Auto Restart in Windows Update
Ever since Microsoft release Windows XP Service Pack 2, the company keeps emphasize the fact that you should enable Automatic Updates on your computer.
Automatic updates are usually a good thing but there is a serious problem with it.
Sometimes updates need to restart the computer to finish the installation. Until SP2 Automatic Updates would not restart your computer automatically. But this is not the case with SP2.
Once you scheduled Automatic Updates to be installed (by default at 03:00 AM), if the update requires restart Windows will notify you that it needs to restart. If you are not logged in and do not restart within 5 minutes, Windows will automatically restart your computer.
This behavior can cause a lot of problems. Documents you left open and did not save will be lost, downloads you started that have not finished will be terminated, and even hard disk maintenance like defrag that is working will get terminated, which might cause lost of data.
Unfortunately Windows XP Home users can not do much to change this behavior, except saving all the data before going to sleep or disabling the automatic updates.
On the other hand Windows XP Pro users can tell Windows never to restart the computer automatically. In order to do that follow these steps.
- 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
- Close Group Policy Editor
The next time Windows updates your system it will not restart the computer automatically, but will notify you that restart is needed in order to finish the installation.
Update
Home users can try the following:
Go to registry editor and navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Policies \Microsoft\Windows \WindowsUpdate\AU
Change the “NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers” DWord value to the required number.
0 = False (Allow auto-reboot)
1 = True (Disallow auto-reboot)
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(9 votes)
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June 22nd, 2005 at 6:00 pm
THat’s a great thing to add to a GPO. But the new XPSP2 restart now nag screen is very annoying.
July 13th, 2005 at 8:21 am
Thanks for the info. This tip was really helpful
September 13th, 2005 at 8:34 pm
Thanks for this tip, it is really useful because it works on Windows Server 2003 as well.
I run my own web server at home, and when it installs updates, it would restart automatically, causing my website and IRC server to be offline until I had remembered about it and restarted Apache, MySQL and UnrealIRCD
As I am typing this, the nag box has just come up asking me to restart it, so I will leave it and see if it restarts.
October 27th, 2005 at 7:01 am
Wow, great tip, thanks!
November 5th, 2005 at 3:28 pm
XP got me again with this last night - lost several hours worth of open work. It’s absolutely insane that this is designed behaviour. There may as well be a check box that says “randomly toss whatever I’m working on”. Aargh.
November 5th, 2005 at 3:29 pm
…and one more thing: I started a trouble ticket about this issue with Microsoft but gave up after several rounds of email trying to explain that the designed behaviour is wrong and that it isn’t a “bug” per se.
December 14th, 2005 at 7:22 am
This is ridiculous. I’ve lost a lot of work and my most recent backup was interrrupted because Microsoft feels it has more important things to do with my computer than I do.
December 20th, 2005 at 5:15 am
I know there is a way to solve this annoying issue with the home edition too (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=555444). However, it seems it varies between different systems and subversions (I personally couldn’t find the mentioned registry key on my system). If anyone can shed some more light on this it will be much appreciated.
December 27th, 2005 at 9:09 am
Go to registry editor and navigate to the following registry key (if you don’t have this key, you’ll need to create it as a new DWord key):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Policies \Microsoft\Windows \WindowsUpdate\AU
Change the “NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers” DWord value to the required number.
0 = False (Allow auto-reboot)
1 = True (Disallow auto-reboot)
Save and restart Windows Operating system.
January 6th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Completely ludicrous software design. However, thanks for revealing the buried mystery workaround that they somehow forgot to mention.
February 12th, 2006 at 3:16 am
Yeah, the update just screwed me over, evidently some files were not closed properly and the disk got kinda screwed up. its 3:13 am and I was coding on my desktop when i noticed my laptop was shutting down, I couldn’t stop it, and upon rebooting it gave me a missin/corrupt file error. So I’m gonna have to restore something, but this issue really needs to be fixed by Microsoft. Er….Off to sleep because I’m too angry to deal with this. ARGH! Thanks for the fix, I’ll be implementing at ASAP on all my machines.
February 16th, 2006 at 3:30 am
damnn.. i thought i was the only one with this problem… but thankfully, today i googled it and i found an asnwer!!
February 16th, 2006 at 3:38 am
[…] This one is specifically for XP Pro SP2, and if you have never tried the group policy editor this is a good chance to be introduced. […]
February 16th, 2006 at 5:45 am
Can’t thank you enough for this!
Although it won’t turn back the clock on all the Photoshop work I lost last night (good one MS) it will certainly stop it re-ocurring in the future.
James
February 16th, 2006 at 5:48 am
[…] Disable Auto Restart in Windows Update […]
February 17th, 2006 at 2:44 am
Thanks….. 2-3 times a week when I came back to office I had to pull my hairs out because of this bug/feature…. Some critical downloads that were supposed to be completed in the night were not completed because Microsoft thought my computer had to be restarted….Who are they idiots to think so???
February 17th, 2006 at 6:44 am
buy a Mac instead
February 18th, 2006 at 2:32 am
ARRGGH lost about 3 hours worth of work in PS. saved a jpeg but just somehow didn’t hit ctrl+s properly before going to bed. this is the most stupidly programmed “feature” i’ve encountered and I can’t find any information about a hidden cache where my open files might have been saved. this is just complete crap.
March 24th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
THX, this help me a lot!!
April 19th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
[…] This means if you aren’t constantly at your computer it will restart itself, losing any unsaved documents and interrupting any ongoing processes, potentially causing data loss. This is absolutely horrible software design. Thankfully, I found a fix. If you are using Windows XP Home, you are screwed, but if you are using Windows XP Professional, follow these steps: […]
April 22nd, 2006 at 2:59 pm
This is Microsoft saying “Our users are too stupid to know when to restart their computers.” Thank you, Mr Gates, for your vote of confidence.
And yet, I only reboot my linux systems when the power goes out.
April 22nd, 2006 at 3:03 pm
by the way… I like how if you happen to be typing when that window pops up… The ‘restart now’ button is defaulted, so if you hit the [enter] or [spacebar] keys… goodbye work!
(Again, really designed with the user in mind)
April 26th, 2006 at 3:29 am
I hate you microsoft. 20 pages. Term paper due tomorrow. Gone. Die, Microsoft.
April 26th, 2006 at 6:22 am
Hey guys, I got a fix. When this window POPS up, just say RESTART LATER, and then go to Control Panel, and choose Automatic Updates, and then turn off automatic updates. This will stop it dead in its tracks and it will never update automatically anymore, plus you do not have to reboot. So no need to edit registry or do any of the other stuff above. Hope this helps.
Johnny
May 11th, 2006 at 4:19 am
THANKS!
I HATED that auto-restart, enough to use lots of capital letters. Now I can write, research, and game uniterrupted at any hour, without having to actively babysit my PC. What a relief! People like you help make computers more useful to everyone. Downloads of a few hundred MB or more used to be a hassle just because of the updating process. Problem solved. One quick google search got me to you, and I should have done it months ago.
May 12th, 2006 at 7:02 am
awesome tip ..thanks so much Johny…
May 13th, 2006 at 3:33 am
what a relief! Thanks Johnny! I have this massive pdf form that I’ve partly filled out but can’t save my changes in (thanks a lot for that useful feature, buttheads at Adobe), and I just barely managed to miss losing it all due to this auto-restart nonsense.
May 17th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Anyone know how to duplicate this “fix” in Win2K? It doesn’t seem to have the same options in the Group Policy editor as Pro.
June 12th, 2006 at 10:14 am
Windows Rebooting… By Itself!
June 15th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Thanks so much for this easy and quick solution to my problem. My accounting software will crash if rebooted without closing it and fortunatetly it didn’t this time, but I have changed the settings as you suggested to prevent it in the future. Thanks.
Rich
June 16th, 2006 at 6:54 am
Thank you so much. Was safety-saving a MASSIVE digital drawing (20 hours of work so far) and looked away at the wrong time. I save every time I lift the pen. In the middle of the save process Windows rebooted and I am unable to open the file on any of my computers now, it’s corrupt.
Instead of the bearable loss of five minutes’ work it’s all down the toilet just because I tried to be careful. Jerks!!! I’m getting roughly $50/hr for this piece– Microsoft should reimburse me for all of the lost time!
June 16th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Thanks a million for this tip!!! And a zillion curses against MSFT - what lunacy on their behalf - sadly unsurprising. THANKS
June 16th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
[…] Thank god for this tip […]
June 28th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Well, like many of you here I lost lot of works too until I found this web site. But at least I know what cause my computer to restart to seek for help. Many people out there have no glue so they can’t be help.
Maybe we need to sue Microsoft, so they can fix this problem and prevent further loss of works from many Windows user around the world.
Thanks for this tip.
June 30th, 2006 at 7:52 am
[…] Anyone else have the problem where windows will install and update while you’re away and then automatically re-start your computer? Well, that really sucks, because then I lose anything I was working on! I’ll leave webpages open that aren’t necessarily ones I want to bookmark, but I do want to look at again, and such. I finally found instructions to shut that feature off, so it’ll still automatically update, but won’t force-restart my PC without my prior expressed written consent! Head over here to Avirans Place and follow his instructions…very simple, and it won’t shut down your PC while your rendering out that complex particle system, or downloaded the entire Vivid collection on bittorrent. […]
June 12th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
@Pink
We should all file a class action lawsuit. Pink, if you charge $50/hr then you can very well sue MS for lost wages & damages. This is very actionable. Let’s hit them where it counts - in the pocket book. That will wake them up and they will think twice next time they surreptitiously include a unproductive ‘feature’.
November 15th, 2007 at 4:35 am
i have xp at home version and a few months ago i used a command line to stop the restart nag.. anyone know what the command line is?
i know it exists and works on xp home i just cant find where i put the command line
December 13th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Realy weird behaviour of Windows. What is most crapy about this, that it even don’t leave any traces for recovery of autosaved files in MSWord. Strange that M$ didn’t fixed that problem for so many years.
December 16th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
ONE WORD: UNIX
April 9th, 2008 at 8:38 am
this was perfect, thank you!
May 29th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Ahhh! Satisfaction guaranteed! Went to feed the cats and lost what I was working on. Thanks for the solution to a pseudo-god blunder!
June 14th, 2008 at 3:19 am
Thank you lot. Really you are excellent helpful to us. May God bless you and pray for your enormous growth.