Does the above window look familiar to you? As long as you’re using Windows XP with Automatic Update turned on, I bet you’ve seen it umpteen times. This annoying little window pops up whenever you finish updating your computer with new updates, prompting you to restart your computer. And guess what, it only offers you the option to Restart Now or Restart Later, which the latter would only make the window come back and haunt you 10 minutes later.
It interrupts workflow and always manages to popup at the wrong time. And if your luck is any worse than mine is, you might just hit Restart Now accidentally and lose all your unsaved work.
So how do you avoid it? I’ve always did so by not installing any updates until I’m sure that I’m ready to restart my computer. But with this trick that I’ve found today, we no longer have to do that!
Start / Run / gpedit.msc / Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update / Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations
You can configure how often it will nag you (I re-configured it for 720 minutes, which means I’ll be asked twice on a work day), or completely disable it.
The article says that you’ll need to reboot after that to have the setting take effect. But having experience messing with gpedit.exe (Group Policy Editor) in the past, I’ll share with you that all you need is to type under Command Prompt:
gpupdate.exe /force
And the change will take effect immediately. Neat eh? But unfortunately, it works only for XP Pro users. Another reason to upgrade that Home edition!
July 6th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Yeah neat if your Network Admins aren’t using group policy and changing that value to what they want when you run gpupdate.exe /force
All your work will be replaced as soon as you /force.
July 7th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
just made my day - i hate that blasted thing. going to put up a link to this post for this ray of sunshine…
July 12th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Yea and that little bastard likes to restart the system if you leave it idle for long enough, had many mornings where the system is at the login screen… Thanks
July 12th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
[Comment ID #5251 Will Be Quoted Here]
LoL, your computer wasn’t restarting !! it just log you off ( For security purpose, etc ), you can disable that from Control Panel –> Power Option. under the system Standby –> set it to “Never”
that will solve your problems.
July 12th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
Gee high tech,. wouldnt it be easier to Set Automatic Updates to check for and install updates automatically at a time your not at work,. during the night ,. early in the morning something like that?? Doesn’t take a genius to do that i mean you right click my computer go to Properties go to the Auto Update tab and choose the time and how often,.
July 13th, 2006 at 1:31 am
[Comment ID #5252 Will Be Quoted Here]
Current setting;
Power Schemes - ‘Home/OfficeDesk’
Monitor Off - ‘After 20 mins’
HDD’s Off - ‘Never’
System standby - ‘Never’
I’m telling you, leaving the system idle for long enough it will restart of it’s own accord, only happens to me after there has been an auto-update, and I leave it for around 8 hours of so.
July 13th, 2006 at 6:01 am
Hmm I leave my systme idle ever night when i go to bed have for years not once has any system with XP or anyother for that matter ever restarted on me during the night or any other time ,..
You sure your not having power failures? bad power bar, or maybe some kind of software issue thats cause a Stop Error(blue screen) in which case windows automatically restarts the system,.
July 13th, 2006 at 7:01 am
Thanks for the info. I hate that stupid window popping up all the time. I went through a bunch of other settings too
Good stuff.
July 13th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
[Comment ID #5255 Will Be Quoted Here]
This is true - the damned thing DOES restart the computer in its own will if left idling long enough. I have seen the dialogue box myself, which says “the computer will be restarted in x minutes…” This is very annoying - more so when you have left the computer on to download something overnight, and you wake up the next morning only to find the computer merrily sitting at the login prompt, and the download bar is at zero.
Thanks for this tip!
July 14th, 2006 at 5:58 am
[Comment ID #5255 Will Be Quoted Here]
Well, i guess it’s time to do a fresh install of winXP !! i leave my comp for weeks, was more than a month once and never restart or go to login screen, etc, just sits there, showing my desktop.
make sure you do a fresh install.
December 6th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Hi guys,
Just wanted to add, if you’re like me and this darn thing catches you off guard (meaning, before you had the chance to apply the settings above) you can simply stop the “Automatic Updates” service. It disappears instantly and is gone til you restart on your own.
Maybe this’ll work on Home Edition too but I can’t test it.
I’m assuming we all know where to stop/restart services
Cheers.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
You can use TweakUI and at Logon set AutoLogon type your credencials and you are off even if it restarts you will still go back to your windows session and if your downloader knows restarting downloads you are OK. Works for me.
May 14th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Gotta love it.
June 11th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Fabulous tip. thanks.
And yes the nagging little restart now or later dialog box, will automatically restart your machine if you ignore it for long enough. The little progress bar at the bottom tells you how much time is left before it arbitrarily restarts your machine unless you press the restart later button. Then it will patiently wait to pop up the screen again and start the idle timer once more;
August 16th, 2007 at 3:26 am
[Comment ID #5255 Will Be Quoted Here]
HA! I thought I was the only one! It’s that nag screen. I believe if it goes ignored one too many times (or in our case we go idle and miss the nag) it reboots your pc. Since I have my auto updates set to run at 3am, this tends to happen on occasion. Sucks! Especially when you have something open like AIM for example to catch any messages. Inconvenience I guess… not the end of the world, but I did want to say that I’ve experienced it more than once.
August 31st, 2007 at 7:44 pm
the countdown only showes up on rare occations. I have seen it some times. But its a rare sight. Thing there is an option to disable auto restart to.