How to Disable Windows 10 Auto Reboot after Updates Installation?

The reason why you hate Windows 10 auto reboot after updates installation – you might be in the middle of something when the installation finishes and your system just shuts itself down.

You need to disable automatic restart in Windows 10 to avoid such vexation. Here’s a rundown of how to stop automatic restart in Windows 10.

1. Disable Reboot Task with Task Scheduler

To stop Windows 10 from restarting, you can try disabling the reboot task from Windows Task Scheduler.

This method can directly disable the auto reboot for Windows 10. You don’t need to keep a check on Windows Update settings when you use Task Scheduler.

Here’s how to disable reboot task in Task Scheduler.

• Go to Start menu on Windows 10
• Search for “ task scheduler ” and open the program
• You’ll see a list of tasks in the Task List
• Right-click on the one that says “ Reboot ”
• Click on ‘ Disable ’ option on the right-side pane

You’ve successfully disabled the reboot task from Windows Task Scheduler. However, this doesn’t let Windows 10 turn off the automatic restart. After installing updates, Windows gives itself permission to re-run the reboot task – even if you disabled it.

So, disabling reboot task from Task Scheduler solves this problem temporarily, more so momentarily.

When you leave the Task Scheduler after disabling this task, Windows gives itself the permission to enable the reboot task the next time you install Windows Updates.

If you want to be thorough, you need to disallow Windows from re-enabling the reboot task by itself.

The following steps can be difficult to follow. But, you need to execute them to ensure prevent Windows 10 from restarting automatically.

• Open the File Explorer window on your computer
• Type in the following address in the address bar and press the Enter key

C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator

• In the UpdateOrchestrator folder, look for a file named ‘ reboot ’
• Right-click on Reboot file
• Click on ‘ Properties ’ from the drop-down menu
• In the Reboot Properties window, click on the Security tab
• Here, click on the ‘ Advanced ’ button to modify permissions
• This opens the Advanced Security window
• Right next to the Owner field, you’ll see the ‘Change’ button
• Click on the Change button to select another user or group as the Owner
• You can select accounts by clicking on the ‘ Advanced ’ button in this window
• Click on Find Now to use/select existing user or group
• Once you’ve selected the user, transfer the ownership by clicking on OK and saving the changes

Now, you need to go back to the destination of UpdateOrchestrator folder. To grant the new owner complete access, you need to access the NTFS permissions.

• Right-click on Reboot file
• Click on Properties from the context menu
• Go to the Security tab
• Click on Advanced
• In the Advanced Security window, go to the Permissions tab
• Click on Add
• Now, click on ‘ Select a Principal ’ to add the new user as the owner
• Select the same group or user as the principal
• You can use the Find Now option again to locate the user account
• After selecting the user, click on OK to save changes

Before exiting the Advanced Security window, make sure you check the option – Disable inheritance .

• Go back to the Reboot Properties window
• Go to the Security tab
• Choose ‘ SYSTEM ’ from the list of usernames
• Click on Edit button
• Uncheck/deny all permissions, except ‘ Read & execute ’ and ‘ Read ’

You can repeat the same process so that every user gets limited permissions. Now, Windows cannot permit itself to run reboot after Windows Update.

2. Fix with Registry and Local Group Policy

The method presented above is tricky but quite effective. If you want to try out a simpler solution, you can use the Local Group Policy Editor and the Registry Editor.

You can modify your computer’s registry to stop Windows 10 auto restart. At the same time, you can change the Group Policy settings of your Windows 10 system to fix the issue.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on fixing the Windows 10 auto-restart with Registry and Local Group Policy editor.

• Press and hold the Windows and ‘ R ’ key to open the “Run” dialog box
• Enter “ gpedit ” in the dialog box and click on OK

• This action opens the Local Group Policy Editor window
• In this window, go to the Computer Configuration section
• Double-click on Administrative Templates
• Go to the Windows Components tab
• Click on Windows Update
• New window opens
• Double-click on – No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations

After enabling this policy by switching the radio button, close the Local Group Policy Editor to save the changes.

Now, with the Registry Editor:

• Click on the Windows 10 Start menu
• Search for “ regedit ” and open Registry Editor program from the results
• Look for the following key in the Editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update

• You need to go to the right section on the Registry Editor window and right-click
• In the dropdown menu for New , you need to click on DWORD (32-bit) Value under the Key section
• Set the name of this new key as NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers
• Set the value of this new key as 1

After completing this process, close the Registry Editor and restart your computer. Remember, the changes will be put into effect only after restarting your computer.

3. Re-Configure Automatic Rebooting

You can use the Registry Editor and Local Group Policy in a different way to fix this issue.

In fact, this method is observed most reliable by several Windows 10 users. Follow the steps below to make re-configure Windows auto restart from Registry Editor and Group Policy Editor.

• Press and hold the keys – Windows and ‘ R ’
• Type “ gpedit ” in the Run dialog box and click on OK
• You’ve opened Local Group Policy Editor window
• Now, go to the Computer Configuration section
• Double-click on Administrative Templates and go to the Windows Components tab
• Here, click on Windows Update
• Choose the Windows Update folder
• Go the right side of the section and click on the option that says ‘ Configure Automatic Updates ’
• In the Configure Automatic Updates window, click on the ‘ Enabled ’ option

Now, you can check if these changes are in place by opening the Windows Update window on your PC. Just type “windows update” in the search box, and open the program from search results.

Go to the Advanced Options to see the selected option displayed in grey. This means that the changes have been saved.

You can use the registry editor as follows:

• Open the Run window as mentioned above
• Type “ regedit ” and press OK to run the Registry Editor program
• Navigate the following key in the Editor:

KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

• Now, go to the right section on the Registry Editor window and right-click on it
• Click on New , then on DWORD (32-bit) Value under the Key section
• Set the name of this new key as AUOptions
• Set the value of this new key as 2 or 3

Here, value 2 notifies you before download, and value 3 notifies the installation and automatically downloads the updates.

To save these changes, restart your computer. Now, go to the Windows Update program on your PC. Click on the Advanced Options , and you’ll see the Notify to install option turned grey .

This stops Windows 10 from auto-restarting automatically after running update installations.

This solution configures the auto-reboot settings of your Windows 10 PC. As a result, you get notifications for the restart, which is better than your PC automatically rebooting after installing the updates.

Be careful while tweaking the “extra” settings of Windows registry and group policy. A single misconfiguration could damage your entire PC. Your Windows may not be able to restart ever again if you fail to follow these steps attentively.

4. Rename the Reboot File

Are the solutions presented above still too complicated? Well, there’s a simpler way – modify the Reboot file in UpdateOrchestrator folder to fix the auto-restart.

You need to rename the reboot file to stop Windows 10 from restarting. Here’s how you do it:

• Launch the File Explorer window on your computer
• Type in the following address in the address bar and press the Enter key

C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator

• This opens the UpdateOrchestrator folder
• Look for a file named ‘ Reboot ’
• Right-click on Reboot file
• Select the Rename option and change the name to ‘ old ’
• Now, go back to the UpdateOrchestrator window
• Press the shortcut keys – Ctrl + Shift + ‘ N ’
• You’ve created a new folder (empty)

This is how you stop Windows 10 from creating a new reboot folder by itself.

This method is probably the only way you can revert the changes. Follow the same process and rename the file back to ‘ Reboot ’ to re-enable the auto-restart (in case you change your mind).

5. Install Windows Updates Manually (Best Practice)

Now that you know how to stop automatic restart, Windows 10 can no longer bug with reboots after installing updates.

But, why bother using the above methods? You might as well prevent the automatic restart by manually installing Windows Updates.

Yes, you can schedule the reboot to more than a week (6 days from update installation). You can also disable the ‘Restart now’ option to prevent Windows 10 from restarting.

• Go to the Start menu on Windows 10
• Click on the Settings button (gear icon)
• Go to the Update & Security section
• Click on Windows Update
• Click on the option that says – We’ll schedule a restart during a time you usually don’t use your device
• You can also select the Restart time and day

Thankfully, when you manually set the reboot time, Windows 10 doesn’t force a restart. So, rest assured, you can prevent Windows 10 from restarting.