The option to turn off automatic restarts is present by setting the active hours on your PC but users have reported that Windows sometimes overrides these settings and restarts no matter what. There are several solutions to this problem and they will completely prevent this functionality from occurring on your PC ever again. Losing data to this feature has angered plenty of users and that is the reason why they are constantly urging Microsoft to stop enforcing updates and restarts on its users. Follow the solutions presented below in order to prevent Windows 10 from restarting automatically.
Solution 1: Tweaking the Group Policy Settings or Registry
The first solution on display is quite a powerful one and it lets you access certain settings which are not available through the regular method in Settings or in Control Panel. This way you can choose several extra settings on how the updates are delivered to your computer and hopefully prevent Windows 10 from restarting without notifying you.
Alternative: If you are somehow unable to access the Local Group Policy Settings on your computer, the second method is to simply use the Registry Editor for the same process. Note that you should be quite careful when editing the registry as a simple unwanted change can cause system instability. Follow the instructions on this backup registry article in order to safely backup your registry!
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU Note: If some of these keys do not exist, you will need to create them manually by clicking on the destination key, right-clicking on the empty space in the right section of the screen and choosing the New » Key option. Make sure you name it correctly. 2 = Notify before download 3 = Automatically download and notify of installation
Solution 2: Another Registry and Group Policy Fix
If the solution above did not work for you, you can always try this one out as plenty of users have suggested that this did the trick on their PC instantly. There are also two ways to approach this problem: via registry or via Group Policy settings.
Via Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update Note: If some of these keys do not exist, you will need to create them manually.
Solution 3: Disabling a Task in Task Scheduler
Windows 10’s UpdateOrchestrator scheduled task folder contains a task called “reboot”. This task will wake your computer up to install updates regardless of whether or not any are available. Simply removing its permission to wake the computer is not sufficient; Windows will just edit it to give itself permission again after you leave the Task Scheduler.
C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator. You will need to make yourself the owner of the file by following the instructions below. This is somewhat difficult to follow but it’s necessary in order to disable the task from occurring.
Make it so that no account has write access, not even your own. Please also ensure you disable any inherited permissions for the file from the “Advanced” button on this screen, to override any existing permissions on the root folder.
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