Hello,
I am new here. I generally leave my computer on and occassionaly I will come
back to my pc after 5 minutes having been working on important documentation
and find that an automatic update has occured and my pc has restarted. I then
lose valuable data - end up cursing and generally it ruins the rest of my
day. I am sure the Microsoft guys get a kick out of ruining people's days but
HOW DO I DISABLE AN AUTOMATIC RESTART! McAfee requests that I restart - so
how do I do the same for my Microsoft restart. I am fearing for the safety of
my PC because this is driving me to madness.

The easiest solution is to modify Automatic Updates action from
Automatic to Notify. This way when new updates are available
you'll only get the Security Shield ( Yellow ) notification in the tray.
It WILL BE up to you to initiate the download/installs and not
miss applying necessary patches. Also Updates ( besides the
definitions for Windows Defender ) appear on specific days of
the month.

You can make the change with the Automatic Updates applet in
Control Panel ( Classic View ).

"Th" <midge2005-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:E5D69984-E521-4687-8B8E-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello,
> I am new here. I generally leave my computer on and occassionaly I will
> come
> back to my pc after 5 minutes having been working on important
> documentation
> and find that an automatic update has occured and my pc has restarted. I
> then
> lose valuable data - end up cursing and generally it ruins the rest of my
> day. I am sure the Microsoft guys get a kick out of ruining people's days
> but
> HOW DO I DISABLE AN AUTOMATIC RESTART! McAfee requests that I restart - so
> how do I do the same for my Microsoft restart. I am fearing for the safety
> of
> my PC because this is driving me to madness.

Th wrote:

> Hello,
> I am new here. I generally leave my computer on and occassionaly I will come
> back to my pc after 5 minutes having been working on important documentation
> and find that an automatic update has occured and my pc has restarted. I then
> lose valuable data - end up cursing and generally it ruins the rest of my
> day. I am sure the Microsoft guys get a kick out of ruining people's days but
> HOW DO I DISABLE AN AUTOMATIC RESTART! McAfee requests that I restart - so
> how do I do the same for my Microsoft restart. I am fearing for the safety of
> my PC because this is driving me to madness.

You can change your Windows Update Group Policy settings to change
the reboot/auto-nag behaviour.

For Windows XP Professional:

Click Start | Run | type gpedit.msc and click OK or press enter.

Look in:

Local Computer Policy | Computer Configuration | Administrative
Templates | Windows Components | Windows Update

For Windows XP Home you will have to do a manual registry edit at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

Edit Reg_DWORD entry name: NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers

Range = 0|1;

1 = Logged-on user gets to choose whether or not to restart his or her
computer.

0 = Automatic Updates notifies user that the computer will restart in 5
minutes.

See:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc708449.aspx

John