Permanently Disable & Prevent Automatic

Restart of Windows Update in Windows 10

LK

Permanently Disable & Prevent Automatic Restart of Windows Update in Windows 10

Windows 10 automatically restart the PC whenever it installed updates that required a
mandatory reboot in order to finish installed. User can no longer delay or postpone a restart
indefinitely. The best a user can do is to schedule a time for Windows to automatically
reboot, or since Windows 10 Anniversary Update, set an active hours which Windows
definitely wont restart the device.
After installing updates that required a reboot to finish installing, Windows would normally
ask user to restart. If the user does not restart the OS after a certain period of time, Windows
10 may start to show warning that operating system is going to restart at a specific time or
after a certain duration of time. Eventually, Windows 10 will automatically restart, with or
without users consent. Theoretically, Windows would only restart the computer
automatically when user is not using the computer, but its not always the case. In fact,
sometimes Windows 10 may wake up the computer to install the updates, and then auto-
reboot.

If youre not fond of surprise or unpredictable Windows restart due to Windows Update, or
face the situation when updates take a long time to install during the reboot, there are
several steps that you can take to avoid automatic restart after installing updates. The
following tutorials will guide you on how to prevent and stop Windows 10 from automatic
restarting after updates are installed, permanently.

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 Disable Reboot Task

1. Open Control Pane from Windows 10 Power Users Quick Access menu.

2. Go to System and Security -> Administrative Tools.

3. Open Task Scheduler.

4. In Task Scheduler, expand the Task Scheduler tree to go to Task Scheduler Library ->
Microsoft -> Windows -> UpdateOrchestrator.

5. Right click on Reboot task, and Disable it.

6. Windows 10 will attempt to sneakily re-enable the Reboot task automatically. To stop the re-
enabling of Reboot task, open File Explorer, and navigate to the following folder:
%Windows%\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator

7. Right click on the Reboot file (without extension), and select Properties. Go to Security
tab then hit Advanced button. Change the ownership to your own user account. Then, hit
Change permissions, and disable the inheritance of permissions, and all permissions (i.e.
SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE and your user account) to read or read & execute only (ensure
that no write, modify or full control permission is granted). This ensure of Windows OS
cannot make any changes to the Reboot task.

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 Alternatively, rename the Reboot file to another name, such as Reboot.bak (you may need to
take ownership of the file). Then create a new folder and name it as Reboot to prevent the
task with the same name been created again.

Third-Party Utilities that Block or Prevent Shutdown & Restart

There are several software utilities that can prevent, stop and abort the shutdown and restart
process.

Group Policy

There is a group policy which a user can set to disable the auto-restart, but YMMV as many
people reported that Windows 10 ignores the policy when comes to mandatory reboot
required for installing updates. Officially, the group policy applies only when Automatic
Updates is configured to perform scheduled installations of updates. If the Configure
Automatic Updates policy is disabled, this policy has no effect.

To configure the policy, open Local Group Policy Editor (GPEdit.msc), the navigate to
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components
-> Windows Update. Set the status of No auto-restart with logged on users for
scheduled automatic updates installations to Enabled so that Automatic Updates
will not restart a computer automatically during a scheduled installation if a user is logged in
to the computer. Instead, Automatic Updates will notify the user to restart the computer.

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 Tip

If youre using Home edition of Windows 10, probably you wont find the Local Group Policy
Editor. You can set the value via Registry Editor (RegEdit) at the following registry key
(create the keys if theyre not exist or not found):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

Then, create a new DWORD (32-bit) value, and name it as

NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers, then set its value as 1.

Ironically, you need to restart the Windows for the policy to take effect. But there is a
workaround. Open an Administrator Command Prompt, and run the following command:
gpupdate /force

Prevent Updates from Installing

Windows 10 needs to reboot because some updates require mandatory restart. If no updates
are installed, then no automatic restart will be done.

There are several ways to stop updates from installing in Windows 10:

1. If the PC is connected only to Wi-Fi network, set the wireless connection as metered
connection. When a computer is connected to metered connection (normally used when
tethering to phone connected to mobile 3G or 4G network with limited bandwidth cap),
Windows 10 will not download and install the updates automatically.

To set a Wi-Fi network as metered connection, open Settings app, go to Network &
Internet -> Wi-Fi. Then, click or tap on Advanced options link (prior to Windows 10
Anniversary Update) or on the Wi-Fi network name itself (Windows 10 Anniversary Update
or later). Toggle the Set as metered connection to On.

2. Force the Windows Update to only download updates, but wait for user input to start
installing (hence therefore reboot). To do so, open Local Group Policy Editor
(GPEdit.msc), the navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative
Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update. Double click Configure
Automatic Updates and select Enabled. Then configure it to use either option 2
Notify for download and notify for install or 3 Auto download and notify for

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 install.

After applying the settings, Windows Update will wait for user to hit the Install button
before installing any updates.

Tip

If youre using Windows 10 Home edition, probably you wont find the Local Group Policy
Editor. You can set the value via Registry Editor (RegEdit) at the following registry key
(create the keys if theyre not exist or not found):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

Then, create a new DWORD (32-bit) value, and name it as AUOptions, then set its value
as either 2 (Notify for download and notify for install) or 3 (Auto download and notify for
install).

LK is a technology writer for Tech Journey with background of system and network
administrator. He has be documenting his experiences in digital and technology world for
over 15 years.

Connect with LK through Tech Journey on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

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