Windows Update - how do I disable automatic restarts

I am running Windows 7 and I want to know if there is a way to completely disable the prompts to reboot and the automatic restarts after updates which require an update for them to be applied are installed.

I don't want to have updates set to manual. I want Windows Update to automatically download and install any updates it finds rather than me having to manually select them. I just don't want to reboot until when I choose to do so which could be as long as a month later.

 

Thanks for the link. However, with the method there while it disables automatic restarts, it does not disable the prompts to restart. I want to disable these too, as it is all to easy to accidentally click on the restart option when the prompt comes up.

 

Might be a long shot ! Could you run for eg, Process Monitor i discover which process/s invoke the promts ? Then try & disable it/them, if it doesn't interfere with Anything else.

 

I've been using ClickOff lately:

http://www.johanneshuebner.com/en/clickoff.shtml

It automatically closes dialogs you don't want to mess with. For that restart dialog run ClickOff, then hover the mouse over the "restart later" button and press Ctrl + Alt + D. From then on, if ClickOff's running it'll automatically click "restart later" for you and the dialog closes. It does it so fast you hardly notice but you probably will notice a quick flash on the screen. If you can't find a way to completely disable the dialog, this might be the next-best thing. It's also a good solution for nag screens you can't get rid of any other way.

I've got it configured to run invisibly. The process starts but you never see it in the system tray, just add a /notray switch to the startup value in the registry. You can still open the interface with a shortcut in the start menu if you need to.

Its native language is German but you can select your preferred language the first time you run it. I remember I did have a problem getting English to stick, but after I set to run invisibly I haven't had any more problems with it.

 

Nice find
I deleted all the language files in its directory apart from english and this seems to have done the trick with the preferred language not sticking.

 

Sounds like a good fix, wish I'd thought of it.

 

Thanks for the link, I will give it a try.

 

I installed this and configured it to close the restart popups, but it is not working - the popups remain until I manually click on them.

 

I don't think this is the case at all, as I can only presume that updates which require a reboot to complete installing won't actually be installed until you reboot.

 

Totally agree. Some updates rip your OS wide open & an immediate reboot is only being prudent.

 

I think they may actually be just partially installed sometimes, and the reboot completes the process. I'd reboot immediately when one is called for...

 

Hmm Roger, I'm not sure why ClickOff wouldn't be working. When you tested it was the Clickoff.exe process running? It has to be for it to work. Does it work on anything else you try it on?

 

Yes it was running.

 

Understanding Windows automatic updating.