How to stop Windows Update nagging you to restart after an update

How to stop Windows Update nagging you to restart after an update

After Windows Automatic Updates has downloaded updates to your computer, it may display a dialog that says: "Updating your computer is almost complete. You must restart your computer for the updates to take effect. Do you want to restart your computer now?" If you click "Restart Later", the dialog will appear again after 10 minutes, which is very annoying if you are busy and consider that your computer should not put its needs above your own.
Solution

Windows may need to be restarted after an update has occurred, in order to allow files that are in use to be replaced. If you would prefer to restart the computer at your convenience, and not be nagged to do so, try one of the following solutions:

Method 1

* Click Start, Run and enter the command net stop wuauserv

This will stop the Windows Update service until the next restart of the computer, which will stop the reminders to restart your computer for this update.

Method 2

If you are running Windows XP Professional, the following steps will increase the period between restart reminders to the maximum possible.

* Click Start, Run and enter the command gpedit.msc
* Select Local Computer Policy, Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Update
* Double-click Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations
* Change the value to 1440
* Close the Group Policy Editor
* Click Start, Run and enter the command gpupdate /force

This will stop the repeated reminders for this and all future Windows updates.

If you have Windows XP Home instead of Windows XP Pro, you will probably get the following message:

Windows cannot find 'gpedit.msc'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.

GPEDIT doesn't exist on Windows XP Home edition, since it's for Group Policy, a Windows XP Pro feature. However, you can set the key in the group policy area of your registry. Google for the links, or just download and double-click on the .reg file mentioned in this post: http://computer-vet.com/weblog/2005/05/20/windows_automatic_reboots.html

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
DWORD value "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers" set to 1.