Prevent Windows Update from restarting the computer

You’re working… Windows tells you there are updates to be installed and you innocently say yes…

WindowsUpdate_Installing

After some minutes you get the infamous message:

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? Restart Now. Restart Later.

It doesn’t matter if you press “Restart Later”, it will reappear in some minutes to check if you changed your mind…

If you didn’t leave it running on the background, this would be the message:

WindowsUpdate_Complete

It’s all the same…

The solution is very simple, you just have to run the command “net stop wuauserv” from Start->Run or from a console. This will shutdown the Windows Update service ’till the next time the computer starts…

C:\>net stop wuauserv
The Automatic Updates service is stopping.
The Automatic Updates service was stopped successfully.

This is also useful if you want to get rid of the shield icon which tells you there are updates to be installed…

WindowsUpdate_Ready

If, for whatever reason (I don’t dare to ask), you want to re-start the Windows Update service in the current session, you can run “net start wuauserv“…

C:\>net start wuauserv
The Automatic Updates service is starting.
The Automatic Updates service was started successfully.

I hope this gives you some peace…

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