Again, thanks for this, straight forward clicky click!
Apparently my software is not genuine. I bought my computer new off Ebay and it came pre installed with windows XP Pro. Just a few days ago after an innocent update I now get a splash screen that I am not genuine and go here to buy a key for $199. I reformatted my whole drive and from my back up external drive restored my hard drive the way it was just before I got zapped with that “You are not genuine nonsense”
However, I now keep getting this thing to install the same update. For some reason, even though I am the administrator of my computer I can not cancel automatic updates…its all in grey and not set up to change. I followed the instructions from this site, and I still get that icon in the tray to install that dumb update which I believe is only the first step from “timing” one out, if you don’t buy it in a certain time.
Big qestion is …How do I stop these automatic updates in windows XP Pro, when I can’t seem to be able to shut it off in the normal way.
Thanks
Phone up customer support and tell them your story. They may well give you a new gunuine key. I know several people who they have done that too. Worth a shot.
Hi, is there anyway that or any service that we can stop working in order not to receive this message! without calling MS ! I just tried and I have been told I need to pay $149 and buy the license!! I have already paid alot on Ebay for this laptop!
Thanks
Naz, we’re talking about something else. Look here for a fix to your problem (Windows Genuine Advantage notifications)…
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000597.html
… or call MS and complain that you bought it this way from some guy on eBay. Maybe if you finger the seller’s eBay account, they’ll throw you a free XP license?
THANK YOU! I want to have your babies!!!
Thankyou for posting.
Microsoft is annoying and destructive in their code.
There is in excuse for this BS!
Everyone play with linux, Mac, anything! The more of us know about alternatives, the quicker we can overthrow the the microcrap tyrant once and for all.
i’ve linked to this post. thanks for the info everyone 
nice little tidbit. god bless Google for helping me find it. death to the MS engineer who put this in place.
Thanks folks. Hate it when I start a build and this thing reboots your machine.
You’ve saved my sanity. Thanks.
In middle of coding session and going mental each time that #$% thing came up.
Why did I bother buying a UPS, when I left the room for 2 minutes I came back to find the photoshop file I’d been working on for an hour disappearing.
What are microsoft thinking. I didn’t even agree to install the update.
But I DO want to disable the automatic update services. Because somehow it interfers with my D-link wireless adapter settings. (I know this sounds screwy, but it was confirmed by tech support at D-link).
Can anyone tell me how to really disable automatic update and let me choose when I want to download updates? When I go into security settings,I can not cancel automatic updates …its all in grey and not set up to change.
But unlike Naz, I have a legal version of XP (loaded with my Presario 900 that I bought retail years ago and still use).
Quote
For the guy with “Windows XP Home Edition”…
- 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
yay!
During a recent lightening storm, I went to shutdown and unplug all my computer equipment. Upon shutting down XP, I got this message, “Do Not turn off or unplug your computer. Computer will shut down automatically after install is complete. Installing update 1 of 9…” It took almost 30 minutes for all 9 updates to install!
If my eqiupment has gotten zapped while Microsoft was installing forced updates without asking me, I would have sued them!
This is the highest form of tyranny from Microsoft yet.
After i changed the re-prompt for restart time interval i did not have to reboot for the changes to take effect.
I just hit ctrl+alt+del then ended the wuauclt.exe proccess.
The process started back up, but it did not pop up the restart box again
Hi guys
When me shutdown xp, there is an option which automatic appear "install updates n shutdown"
How do delete this option from the shutdown menu?
Thanks
On my copy of Windows there was no Windows Update area under Windows Components so I just made a batch file that gets executed every time I start windows. In order to do this you must first create a new text file in the folder located at start menu - programs - startup and add “sc stop wuauserv” (without the quotes) to the file and change the extension to .bat and save it.
I just had a variation of this happen this morning. Following the first of three auto-updates, I was given the usual dialog box with the choice to “restart now” or “restart later”. However, after I elected to restart later, a more insistant dialog appeared which had a countdown timer, thermometer bar and digitial display, counting down from 5 minutes. If you were not sitting there and actively clicking the “restart later” button, the machine would reboot. I left the room for a few minutes and returned to find that the machine was rebooting, and my work was lost! All I wanted was to finish what I was doing before I packed my laptop to go. Stupid Microsoft.
Finally! This has annoyed me for so long. Maybe there really is a god …