Sick Of Being Nagged to Restart, Every 10 Minutes After An Update?

This is a tip that has been posted a lot of times before, but I've drawn a little picture to make it simpler.

First, here it is in words:

1. Open the windows Run dialog
2. type in "gpedit.msc" press ok -- this opens the "Group Policy" management Console
3. Open "Local Computer Policy"
4. Open "Computer Configuration"
5. Open "Administrative Templates"
6. Open "Windows Components"
7. Open "Windows Update"
8. Double click on "Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations"
9. Select "Disabled"
10. Click "OK"
11. Close the Group Policy management console

Here's the picture...

Note that in the help for this setting it wrongly says:

<wrong>"If the status is set to Disabled or Not Configured, the default interval is 10 minutes."</wrong>

('wrong' tags added for the benefit of people who are just skimming, i.e. most of us)

I've found that with the status set to disabled I never get nagged. So just do as I do, and it should be okay.

What I'd like would be a "configure notification" link directly on the nagging dialog box itself, that takes you to this part of the group policy. Provided you're allowed there, of course.

Here's some other posts talking about this topic:

• How to stop Windows Update nagging you to restart after an update
• XP Automatic Update Nagging (Coding Horror)

[yeh, I'm blogging this so i can find it next time I need it ;-) ]

'Suraj Barkale' on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:01:30 GMT, sez:

Following is copied shamelessly from CodingHorror blog comments -

For the guy with Windows XP Home (or guy being unfairly denied access to gpedit.msc in corporate env)...

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

'Doekman' on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 05:41:53 GMT, sez:

Hmm. I was hoping on some kind of program that could tell WHY a reboot is necessary. Most of the time it is to delete some file that might be locked.

Normally I only reboot, when things don't work anymore.

But this tip is also handy.

'ZapataVive' on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 05:44:24 GMT, sez:

Actually there exists a fancy program called "Why Reboot" that does exactly what you need http://exodusdev.com/products/WhyReboot/

'Peter {faa780ce-0f0a-4c28-81d2-3667b71287fd}' on Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:01:26 GMT, sez:

Leon, if there was ever any doubt you deserve an MS Paint MVP award, the epic masterpiece removes it. Wow.

The only other person I can imagine deserves an MS Paint MVP (or a Pulitzer prize maybe) is this guy:

http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/TieFighter/chapter1.html
(possibly eventually NWS, crude humor)


Anyway, prepare your awards ceremony speech; that screenshot is a winner.

'Marc' on Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:00:13 GMT, sez:

Yes I'm sick of this prompt, but it does get me to reboot sooner to install an update the I probably ought to have, so I'm going to leave things as-is.

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