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We have started to deploy more Windows 2012 R2 servers on our network. When we log on to these servers (only admins log on to these servers), we are sometimes presented with a blue banner that says Updates are available and Go to Windows Update to install the updates now. It gives us the choice to either Install the updates or to Close the popup banner. That would be all well and good if this was a Windows 8 system, but it is not, this is a Windows 2012 R2 server.

We need to disable the banner so that someone doesn't accidentally click on Install. Stopping the update service on the server is not a solution for us. We want to be able to manually install updates on these servers.

How can we disable the popup banner on Windows 2012 R2 so that the notification doesn't appear on our servers?

SOSidb
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    `We need to disable the banner so that someone doesn't accidentally click on Install` - Maybe you shouldn't have people logging on to those servers that would accidentally click the "Install" button. You could configure the setting to "Notify for download and notify for install". – joeqwerty Nov 13 '14 at 18:39
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    We know when there are updates to install, we don't need to be notified about them. And you can accidentally click **Install** easily when you are working on a server and out of nowhere, all of a sudden, the popup appears. If you happen to be typing or clicking the mouse button in the area where the **Install** button shows up on the banner, then you'll accidentally click it and start the update install process. – SOSidb Nov 13 '14 at 19:02
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    Then set it to "Never check for updates" and you can manually check for and install updates whenever you want. – joeqwerty Nov 13 '14 at 19:44

2 Answers2

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Create/Modify a GPO using the Group Policy Object Editor.

Mode 1 (only administrators have Windows Update permission)

Disable notifications for non-administrator users. Obviously non real administrators should use a non-administrators group account

In GPO Object Editor expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, and then click Windows Update.

In the details pane, click Allow non-administrators to receive update notifications, and set the option.

Mode 2 (not all administrators have Windows Update permission)

If you have users with administration rights but they're not the responsibles of install updates you can create a new OU for that non full administrators and link a GPO on that OU.

On that GPO, expand User Configuration.

Expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, and then click Windows Update.

In the details pane open "Remove Access to use all Windows Update features" and enable it.

All the users on that OU won't have access to Windows Update. Obviously full administrators with windows update access should be out of that OU.

NetVicious
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Unlike the first commenter and responder, I will tell you that I understand that there are reasons that a regular user account would be on a 2012 R2 server with a standard user account, such as a RDS server.

To disable the notifications completely, just change the update option to manual on such a server. Schedule regular monthly maintenance outages to search for, and apply patches. You get your monthly reboot completed, and you no longer have the warning for updates.

Rex Storey
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