Disable Automatic Reboot after Windows Update

Have you seen the message

“Automatic Updates

Updating your computer is almost complete. You must restart your computer for the updates to take effect.

Do you want to restart your computer now?”

Automatic Windows updates are very good for computer security. However, when these Windows updates are downloaded and installed on your computer, if the updates require a reboot of your computer, Windows keeps prompting you to reboot your computer.

Now, Windows XP Pro users can disable automatic reboot of the computer after a Windows Update. In order to do that, follow these steps

Disable Automatic Reboot after Windows Update for Windows XP Pro users

With this setting you will be able to specify that after a scheduled Windows update, Automatic updates will wait for the computer to be restarted by any user who is logged on, instead of causing the computer to restart automatically. If this setting is not enabled or not configured, your computer will prompt you every 5 minutes to restart the computer to complete the installation.

1. Press <Windows Key> + R which will launch the Run command. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter

2. Group Policy Editor will now be launched

3. On the left hand pane, under Local Computer Policy, click on the (+) sign next to Computer Configuration

4. Click on the (+) sign next to Administrative Templates. Then click on (+) next to Windows Components and then click on Windows Update

5. Double click on No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations. A settings window will now open. In there, select Enabled and then press OK

6. Close the Group Policy Editor

Disable Automatic Reboot after Windows Update for Windows XP Home users

The settings are a bit different for Windows XP Home users because there is no group policy configuration for Windows XP Home.

1. Press <Windows Key> + R and type in regedit. Press Enter

2. Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Policies \Microsoft\Windows \WindowsUpdate\AU

3. Change the “NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers” DWord value to 1 to Disallow auto reboot.

4. Press OK

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