Go to the Services admin control panel and stop the Automatic Updates
service after the update completes and the reboot prompt displays.
Make sure to leave this service on auto startup so that it checks for
updates again when you reboot.
Thanks for your helpful reply.
Are you saying that I would have to do this manually after each update?
I just remembered that the behaviour seems to be different on my PC
(which also runs XP SP3, just like the laptop to which my original
question referred).
IIRC, on my PC the reminder prompt doesn't keep coming up. Instead, in
the Shut Down Windows prompt I get a modified shutdown option that says
"Install updates, then shut down", or words to that effect.
I can't remember where this is set, and I wonder how I can get this
behaviour on the laptop?
Thank you.
Herbert Eppel
www.HETranslation.co.uk