XP Automatic Update Nagging

Actually in the same area in the Group Policy, enable the setting for “No automatic Restart for scheduled automatic updates” also. Corporate Lan users aside, I don’t want my (net admin)computer annoying me w/ the pop-up, nor do I want some of the computers acting as low-level servers rebooting during the middle of an overnight process.

Dear friend,

Microsoft has a very annoying dialog box about rebooting when Windows update has downloaded and installed a patch that requires a reboot. Somebody there thought it would be a good idea to annoy the user every 10 minutes until they rebooted or bought a Macintosh. You can help fix this sorry state of affairs. Please send the following message to mswish@microsoft.com with the
subject line “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to reboot any more”.

Dave gave us the solution, let’s use it

I tried it, it works. So, can we just do the solution and keep it at the end so that the next person who tries to find out how to stop this damn thing can find it?

Dave said:

Here is the proper solution that disables the annoying dialog without disabling the automatic update services or anything. It’s a group policy setting. Thanks to Spoom - http://www.xiven.com/weblog/2004/05/01/WeHaveWaysOfMakingYouRestartYourComputer

Start - Run - gpedit.msc - Local Computer Policy - Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Windows Update - Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations.

You can disable the reminder entirely, or adjust the frequency of the pop up.

Posted by: dave at June 15, 2005 10:33 AM

In that xiven page, there is a comment for how to do it on XP Home, which doesn’t have Group Policy Editor. You just add a couple of new registry entries via the supplied 3 .reg file lines (or you can do it manually with regedit).

Badge (2005-08-15 18:20:18 UTC)

For the guy with Windows XP Home…

  1. Copy the text below into Notepad. Save it with a .reg extension. Open and confirm that you want to copy the data into your registry.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled"=dword:00000000
"NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers"=dword:00000001

Thanks for that guys,
I don’t mind the fact that it nags me every ten mins, the thing that bugs me is I go to bed at night and wake up to a rebooted computer. The worst thing about that is I can have up to 30 programs running and when I start up again I can’t remember what in the world I was doing.

Why don’t you just drag the dialog box to the bottom-right corner of the screen, so that just one pixel of its top-left corner is visible ? It will not popup again or bother you. So simple…

Clever would also suggest that you should just turn your stereo up louder to drown out the bad sounds your engine is making.

Useless. Focus (/VB) shifts to that window every 10 minutes. I had my typing interrupted every 10 minutes even when I never minimized it.

Or we could just run ‘cmd’ and ‘sc stop wuauserv’.
_

Ok the solution was posted above but I’ve noticed a problem.

Here’s the solution for thoes of you who didn’t read it :
Start - Run - gpedit.msc - Local Computer Policy - Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Windows Update - Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations.

The problem is if you click ‘disable’ or ‘not configured’ the popup keeps comming up every 10 mins. this is mentioned in the Microsoft explaination :

“If the status is set to Disabled or Not Configured, the default interval is 10 minutes.”

So you actually have to enable it and just set the interval of when it asks you to reboot really high.

i have an app called TrayIt ( http://www.teamcti.com/trayit/trayit.htm )

when the “reboot now?” window pops up, i just right click the close button at the top right (which is greyed out, but trayit still does its job), and trayit puts the window into the system tray, where it sits until i click its icon

andy–

Not sure if this will work, but my IT admin just told me to:

Control Panel - Automatic Updates - select “Download update for me, but let me chose when to install them.”

The pop-up window that I get has a countdown timer on it that ends after about 5 minutes with a restart, so I don’t think the “drag the dialog box to the side” will work for me.

Like “Me” above, I went to lunch with scores of document open and returned to a restarted computer.

I had the “magic restarting wipe of doom” happen precisely once, and once was enough. Anyone, including MickeySoft, who thinks it is acceptable to trigger a remote operation that results in core system changes, followed by a forced restart, is out of their tree! Hours of work gone! And the EULA says M$ are without blame, unlike any Open Source writer, who would be pilloried across the web.

Here’s the solution for thoes of you who didn’t read it :
Start - Run - gpedit.msc - Local Computer Policy - Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Windows Update - Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations. set = 1440

Jesus Christ,

I’ve never seen so many idiotic rants. Yes this popup “bugs” the hell out of us, but MS make BUGGY software. Why don’t you all format and install Ubuntu or FreeBSD!

Did NO ONE, apart from Aaron (the only one this message isn’t targeted at), look at the options available in Start - Run - gpedit.msc - Local Computer Policy - Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Windows Update???

I did a Google, found this thread, went to the link Dave gave us, opened up Windows Update in gpedit.msc, looked at everything there and turned off that stupid default “Install Updates and Shut Down” as well.

Thank God for Aaron, I apologise Aaron for adding a post after yours, but this was just too silly to ignore! So I’ve added it after this rant post of mine again.

Aaron Wrote:

How to disable the restart prompt completely (rather than put it off for a long time):

Start - Run - gpedit.msc - Local Computer Policy - Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Windows Update - No auto-restart for schedule Automatic Updates installations (ENABLE)

Wow, I see that the whole automatic update reboot nagware thing is making some of you justifiably cranky :slight_smile:

I’m going to update the original post with the great tips you guys provided!

1 Like

Raaabo… XP Home doesn’t have a group policy editor. That solution is only for XP Pro users. Considering that XP Home is the single most popular personal computer operating system in the history of the world, your outrage seems misplaced.

I was so annoyed by this auto update issue that I made a web site: http://evilupdate.com

I have the methods for stopping the service, and for disabling restart reminders.
And a little humor as well. Enjoy,
Stephen

wow, wow, wow.
lets see here, does “auto restart” mean the same thing as “prompt” to you MORONS? they are two different settings. i’m not going to explain them because if u just think about the NAMES of the settings they explain themselves. computers are not foreign nor arbitrary, they are made by people, many of whom actually have common sense, unlike you people…oh and if u cant stand the reminder coming up every 24 hrs (1440 mins) then u need to get counseling.

wicked stuff!
i just blogged about this… but a kind commenter sent me your way. (cheeers to http://weblogs.asp.net/jnadal)