Disable Automatic Restarts in Windows 10 Home Anniversary Update

I have a Windows 10 Home PC that is often unattended but doing important work. The work follows no particular schedule, and may take place at any time of day or night.

As things stand, Windows 10 (anniversary update) is configured to automatically restart and install updates during inactive times. The user can configure the inactive times, but the OS forces the user to have no more than 12 active hours a day. This means that the machine may well choose to restart at a time that is highly disruptive to our work and when there is no user around to prevent the restart.

For this reason, I would like to ensure that Windows never automatically restarts. How can I achieve this?

Answer

Here are the instructions to disable auto restarts for windows 10 Pro and Home editions. If you have a different version (education, enterprise) the process is different - update your question to that effect and I'll add that info.

There are two methods provided. The first is Pro only. Win 10 home doesn't have the group policy editor so it has to be configured via the registry. This registry method will work for both Pro and Home.

I confirmed that this works on the Anniversary update version (win 10 pro).
There is one caveat - a user must be logged in for this approach to work.

Win 10 Pro:

1. Press win+R then type gpedit.msc and press enter


2. This will open the group policy editor. Browse through the 'tree' to the following entry:
   Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.


3. Look on the right panel and search for the option named No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations.


4. Double-click on it, then change the radio button in the popup window that will appear from not configured to enabled and click OK.


5. To make the system immediately apply the changes you just made, press WIN + R again and issue the gpupdate /force command

Win 10 Pro (alternative method) and Home:

1. Press win+R; type regedit and press enter.


2. Browse to the following registry entry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU


3. If you do not have a WindowsUpdate and/or AU entry, you need to create them. Follow the 'source' link below for add'l info on how to do this.


4. Inside the AU key, create a new 32-bit DWORD called NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers, then double-click on it and set its hex value to 1.


5. You'll have to reboot for the change to be applied.

Another alternative - home or pro

If for whatever reason the approach above doesn't work, you can get around automatic reboots by changing your windows update settings so that you only download updates automatically and it requests approval before installing them. Once you approve installation you are at the mercy of when Windows reboots, but you have the ability to otherwise indefinitely delay it.

To change this setting:

1. Press win+R; type regedit and press enter.


2. Browse to the following registry entry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update


3. Change the value of that key to a '3' (which configures windows update to download updates automatically but require user confirmation before installing them).

source