One of the most annoying “features” of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP is the seemingly endless stream of pop-up reminders to reboot your computer after installing patches from Windows Update. It’s a well-intentioned feature, and casual users should take Microsoft’s advice and reboot their computers when asked, since many patches cannot be applied while system files are in use and thus cannot be updated until the system restarts. However, for power users that are aware of the consequences of not rebooting immediately, the pop-ups can be incredibly annoying. Yes, we know we need to reboot our computers, but we’ll get around to it when we can – we have other things to do in the meantime. For instance, you might be troubleshooting a server or some code and want to wait until lunch to reboot your computer. If it’s 8AM when the first reminder pops up and 11AM is your scheduled lunch time, you’re going to have to click “Reboot Later” eighteen times until lunchtime. Not fun.
Ars Technica is filled with such power users, and many there have complained about this annoyance. Until this week though, no one had posted a fix for it. Thanks to STi Sev and his super Google-fu powers, I can relate this easy fix to you.
You need to have administrative rights to change these settings. Additionally, if your computer is on a Windows 2000 or later domain, your system admin might have Group Policies in effect that override this fix (domain policies take precedence over local policies if there is a conflict between the two). If this is the case, there’s nothing you can do about it (aside from logging on locally instead of to the domain.
System administrators can also implement this fix – if they wish – by editing the domain’s group policy instead of the local group policy.
1) Click on Start > Run
2) Type “gpedit.msc” in the Run box and then press ENTER (or click “OK”)
3) Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update
4) Look at the value for “Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations”. You can change the interval between reminders to any number of minutes, or you can disable the prompt altogether. The default reminder time is every 10 minutes; I changed my domain policy to every 240 minutes (4 hours).
5) Reboot the computer (this particular setting is only loaded when Windows starts, so a “log off\log on” won’t work). If the reminder is on your screen right now, simply do the above fix, then stop the “Automatic Updates” service (making sure that it’s still set to “automatic”) and you won’t be pestered until your reboot (when your new settings kick in).