One of the bigger annoyances of Windows 10 automatic updates is that the system will reboot itself to install the updates. Typically, Windows 10 automatically schedules a time to restart your system. When that time arrives, no matter what you are doing, it will reboot itself to install the downloaded updates. Generally, this is not a bit deal for most people. However, if you are someone who needs the system to run extended periods of time then the automatic restarts can be a pain the back. Sure you can enable Active Hours but it is only limited to 18 hours.
The good thing, buried deep within Windows, it has an option that restricts Windows 10 from restarting itself automatically to install updates as long as a user is logged. This is a very good option to enable if don’t want your system to restart in the middle of work, like rendering videos, etc. Follow the below steps to prevent automatic rebooting to install updates in Windows 10.
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Method #1: Use Group Policy to Stop Windows 10 from Rebooting to Install Updates
The easiest way is to use the Group Policy Editor. All you have to do is enable a single policy and you are good to go.
1. Open the Run dialog box, type gpedit.msc and press Enter. This action will open the Group Policy Editor.
2. In the group policy editor, you will see a few folders on the left panel. Go to the Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update folder.
3. On the right panel, you will see all the policies related to Windows Update. Here, find the No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installation policy and double click on it.
4. In the policy properties window, select Enabled and click on the Apply and Ok buttons to save the settings.
5. To apply the changes, reboot Windows 10.
After rebooting, Windows 10 will not restart itself to install updates when you are logged in. If you ever want to restore the default behavior, simply select the “Not configured” option in step 4, save the changes and reboot your system.
Method #2: Registry Edit Method to Stop Automatic Reboot
Group Policy editor is only available for Pro and Enterprise users. If you are using Windows 10 Home version then you need to use the Registry Editor. Though the procedure is not hard, I recommend you to backup registry before proceeding.
1. Open the run dialog box, type regedit and press Enter to open the Windows Registry Editor.
2. In the registry has been opened, copy the below path, paste it in the address bar and press Enter. This will take you to the required folder.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
3. Here, we need to create new value. To do that, right-click on the empty space and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value option.
4. The above action will create a blank value. Name the value as NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and press Enter.
5. Double-click on the value you just created, type 1 in the value data field and click on the Ok button.
6. This is how it should look like in the registry editor after changing the value.
7. To apply the changes, close the registry editor and reboot your system.
After rebooting, Windows 10 will no longer restart itself to install updates as long as you are using the system. If you want to restore the default behavior, change the value data in step five to 0 or delete the value you just created.
That is it.