Group Policy Auto Restart Without Update

Question

We are wanting to implement automatic restarts every couple of days for our company but we do not want computers to update before the restart. We tried to do a scheduled task but they do not work because a user will not be logged in at the time of reboot and when setting up the scheduled task in group policy management editor the box to check 'run whether user is logged on or not' is grayed out and can not be selected. no matter which user or group input we have tried using a user, a group with a user in it, and even tried a group with the computer in it and none of them seem to work. We would like to implement this scheduled task in group policy instead of going around to every single computer as local admin. I will note that the 'run whether user is logged on or not' appears when you use a user instead of a group however the restart still does not happen.

Answer 1

Hello SFF-2954,

Thank you for posting in our Q&A forum.

For Computer Configurations > Preferences > Control Panel Settings > Scheduled Tasks

You could try to use the account "SYSTEM" (NT Authority\System) and then you can select "Run whether user is logged on or not".

After that check if it helps.

Here is a similar thread for your references.
Schedule a Shutdown Task using GPO
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/1317f73d-0d78-461a-b0e4-684d32040429/schedule-a-shutdown-task-using-gpo

Hope the information above is helpful.

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

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Answer 2

Hello there,

You can configure your endpoint in a way that your updates are patched when the users are logged in or on the days when you do not need the devices to auto restart.

WSUS allows companies not only to defer updates but also to selectively approve them, choose when they’re delivered, and determine which individual devices or groups of devices receive them. WSUS provides additional control over Windows Update for Business but does not provide all the scheduling options and deployment flexibility that Microsoft Configuration Manager provides.

Once you fix the frequency of the update then restarting them with simple scripts and scheduled task is not much of a hurdle https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-manage-updates-wsus

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