STOP REBOOTING OUR COMPUTERS AT NIGHT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Microsoft, this response does not allow a person to prevent the reboots. There should be a setting that turns OFF automated reboots. I understand Microsoft wants to install updates for security etc. etc. That's OK. But perhaps, instead of rebooting without permission from the owner of the computer, there could be a setting that allows the user to turn off automated reboots and in this mode, Windows installs updates, but does not reboot and simply displays a pop-up message like:

Updates Completed - PC needs to be rebooted

Please reboot your computer at your earliest convenience

This would be helpful. Then we could properly save our work, close the programs we have open, and reboot when we are ready.

Hello

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community forum.

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with your computer rebooting at night. Microsoft does not intentionally reboot computers without user consent, but there may be updates or maintenance tasks that require a reboot. You can adjust the active hours setting in Windows to prevent automatic reboots during your preferred work hours. To do this, go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Change active hours.

And also, you can disable Windows Update service to prevent system update. Press Win+R to open Run, and run services.msc, you can find Windows Update service and set the Startup Type to disabled.

If you continue to experience issues, please contact Microsoft support for further assistance. 

Best Regards,

Zack Lu

Well, I understand that you work for Microsoft and try to give me the polite answer, but come-on.

Yes, of course Microsoft reboots computers at night, during non active hours and when there are updates. It's not random reboots, of course.

And of course I have disabled the update service. In fact, I've tried to do everything I could find and do about that and it keeps happening, and it is for updates. There are tons of infuriated people over the internet because of that. The problem has nothing to do with active hours.

It's just that we don't want our computers rebooted at all. I have tons of things running overnight and a complex dev environment that is being lost at every reboot. I'm sorry, but active hours is a silly concept except when you're just a consumer.

Hi Philippe,

Thanks for your understanding, and I can totally understand your feeling. But unfortunately, Windows system update is a designed feature to keep system running better and fix issues, but I found a way to disable this feature by change the registry. Please run Powershell by admin and run the command below.

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v UseWUServer /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v WUServer /t REG_SZ /d … /f

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v WUStatusServer /t REG_SZ /d … /f

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v NoAutoUpdate /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v DisableDualScan /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Servicing" /v LocalSourcePath /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d … /f

REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v SetDisableUXWUAccess /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Then restart the system and the update should be disabled.

Best Regards

Zack Lu

Then run it on a server OS like it should be?