Preventing Windows Update from rebooting your computer
One of the features designed to help beginners that ends up annoying the hell out of anyone else is the Windows Update "Restart your computer now?" nag. We look at a few ways to stop it. There are two ways to go about it: Do you know any other methods? Speak up! For the absolute beginner, Windows Update provides a very important function: the need to keep your OS updated as a way to prevent disaster. While other OSs (such as Ubuntu) take a friendlier to the user approach, Windows will nag you every 10 minutes to restart the machine, and absent any user input, will restart it automatically. This is fine if you left the computer on without shutting down, suspending or hibernating; however, if you are in the middle of a lengthy task, such as rendering, compiling or downloading, a reboot would turn your microcosm upside down. You need to prevent it, but how?
1. Temporary solutions
2. More permanent solutions
On Windows, you can modify a group policy setting to change how frequently it re-prompts you. In Group Policy Editor (start -> run type gpedit.msc), look under Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Update. The settings of interest are Re-Prompt for restart with scheduled installations and No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations. Be sure to read the explanations provided by Microsoft in the Extended tabs, as the way GPedit works is often counterintuitive.