Disable automatic restarts on Windows 11

It's EXTREMELY annoying. I can't fathom how someone at Microsoft thought that it would be a good idea to force updates on users, or give them deadlines for when they must update the system. Someone has lost their mind.

I still receive notification updates, and I try to leave my system unplugged from the power network at night. It seems that the system won't restart and update itself without being connected to the power outlet, I guess to prevent mid-update shutdowns that could brick the laptop... That helps for now.

As for the setting suggested by Nao, it seems to work so far, but I still get notifications to update the system before X date. So I will keep using all options, to ensure I can update the system manually.

Hi Nao. That seemed to work, and I can now access the Local Group Policy Editor.

But there is no "Management Templates" section within it, but there is one called "Administrative Templates". Is that the one I should be looking for?

Within that one, assuming it's the one we're looking for, and going to the "Windows Components - Windows Update" section, I see no policy named "configure automatic updates" or anything similar to "notify download and installation". I see the following options:

• Enable optional updates: Not configured
• Select when Preview Builds and Feature Updates are received: Not configured
• Select when Quality Updates are received: Not configured
• Disable safeguards for Feature Updates: Not configured
• Do not include drivers with Windows Updates: Not configured
• Manage preview builds: Not configured
• Select the target Feature Update version: Not configured

What would be the best way to just ask Windows to wait until I restart the system myself, before installing any updates? It can download and install them, but I would like to choose when to restart the system.

Just being able to control when to restart the system would be really helpful. I usually put the system in Hibernation mode with documents that are still being edited, and I usually leave my laptop switched on throughout the night so that it can run longer processes and have the results ready by the next morning.

Thanks,

The home version can try the following methods to enable group policy functionality

Create a new Notepad file, copy and input the following content:

@echo off

pushd "%~dp0"

dir /b C:\Windows\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~3*.mum >List.txt

dir /b C:\Windows\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~3*.mum >>List.txt

for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . List.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add-package:"C:\Windows\servicing\Packages%%i"

pause

Then change the file name to gpedit. bat, right-click on "gpedit. bat" to run as an administrator, install the group policy package, and wait for it to be installed.

Finally, we can use the Group Policy feature by entering gpedit.msc using Win+R

Hi Nao. Thank you for your prompt reply. Unfortunately, I get the error message "Windows cannot find 'gpedit.msc'", nor I can find Group Policy Editor in my Start menu. I am using Windows 11 Home.

Hello, I am a Microsoft user like you, trying to assist you in solving this problem together!

You can try setting automatic updates as notification download update method through group policy settings

1. Press Windows+R to open the window, execute gpedit.msc to open the Group Policy Editor
2. Browse to Computer Configuration - Management Templates - Windows Components - Windows Update
3. Double click to configure automatic updates

We first choose to enable this policy, and then choose to notify download and installation

From the above options, we can also see that this strategy provides us with four patch download and installation methods, and you can also choose other methods.