Auto-reboot after installing XP patches

[severtki]

I have Windows updates set to auto-download only. When I install the patches, I never know if they will require a reboot or not, and sometimes I have things running that I don't want to stop. When this happens, I'm pestered every 5 minutes to reboot. If I ignore and walk away from the computer for long enough, I discover that it has rebooted itself. And ended whatever tasks I had running...

Is there any way to prevent windows update from rebooting without my permission?? I hate it the way it just hijacks my computer automatically like that!

 

[dahoff]

That annoys me too. I just have it set to auto-notify, then I manually update when I have time. That way I'm prepared to reboot if necessary. I'm on broadband, and most updates are pretty small anyway.

 

[mechBgon]

If you have Windows XP Pro then you can alter that behavior, yeah.

Start > Run > gpedit.msc and go to the stuff shown in this pic.

 

[severtki]

Excellent! That looks exactly like what I was looking for. Never would have found it just browsing, though...