Return to site

Disable Windows 10 Auto Restart “Feature”

· post,wolf

I have been really enjoying this Windows 10 Auto Restart “Feature” so thoughtfully provided by a company that specializes in server products and developer tools. I find it most convenient to have all my running tests abruptly terminated, my database server shut down and my web services taken offline such that other process I had running now fail. Besides that being a great testing tool to ensure your OTHER services handle failure well.

I trust you can read through that above paragraph and detect a very thick sense of sarcasm. I have scoured the web for months looking for a solution and stumbled upon a hint. However, even with this hint it still took some time to find the referenced settings. BUT, found the settings I have and now to share with you.

There used to be an option to “Download updates and notify me to Install” and that is oddly missing in Windows 10. Lest anyone think I’m against patching the OS let me assure you that is NOT the case. I am, however, very against any equipment being unpredictable both hardware and software. At the top of the list of design rules, is be predictable.

So, here is a step by step guide.

I have some sample screenshots below to help clarify.

  1. Press the [Windows] key and type “Group Policy”
  2. Choose “Edit Group Policy” from the list
  3. Once the app opens, the title reads “Local Group Policy Editor”
  4. Now choose the following sections in the “Computer Configuration” section
  5. Administrative Templates
    1. Windows components
      1. Windows Update, located at the very bottom  (see image below)
      2. If you expand the “Windows Update” option as you have all the others, you will need to click the “Windows Update” selection to reveal the list of settings in the right-pane
  6. Double-Click “Configure Automatic Updates”; which likely says “Not Configured” in the “state” column
  7. A new window appears; “Configure Automatic Updates” is the title (see image below)
  8. In the first drop-down, choose “3 – Auto download and notify for install”; the remaining options are only valid if you choose option #4, so you can ignore the others.
  9. Choose Apply
  10. That’s it – You may want to browse through the list in case you wish to set any other options
  11. I am not sure if a restart is required to enable this feature; No restart will be requested by this operation but I performed a restart just to be sure

Happy Computing
\\//\\//olf

 

Wolf Scott
ioihan.com