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I am tired of programs that constantly prompt me to reboot (including Windows' Automatic Updates), so I wonder if anybody knows how to disable the API reboot call on Windows?
Basically I want Windows to do absolutely nothing when a program attempts to reboot it.
tomjen
Posted 2010-04-22T09:25:21.523
Reputation: 193
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I don't think this is possible and in other terms it's most likely not the best idea. You get prompted for a reboot because of the system architecture...it needs that reboot to replace files and system parts which otherwise wouldn't get changed (or are loaded in memory and won't be reloaded until restart).
With other words: Security updates won't fix a thing without a reboot, installations won't complete and programs may run faulty or not at all.
Bobby
Posted 2010-04-22T09:25:21.523
Reputation: 8 534
6Not to mention memory leaks eating up all your resources, when you see BSOD and hard hangs you wish you rebooted. – invert – 2010-04-22T10:47:50.263
Uhm I guess he meant every application. Like drivers, different applications. Be in control of any reboot, or something like that. As for an answer: I don't know. :-/ – Apache – 2012-02-14T23:47:13.017
> Not to mention memory leaks eating up all your resources, when you see BSOD and hard hangs you wish you rebooted. I agree that a fresh boot is, well, refreshing, but that is not an excuse to avoid fixing memory leaks and bugs. It reminds me of a response about Chrome not prompting users when accidentally closing the browser. Someone had the audacity to say that the devs won’t fix it because they want/need Chrome to close now and then to clear memory leaks and for updates. Another user and I kind of freaked out on him for that. – Synetech – 2012-02-15T02:04:23.963
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This article was written with preventing the Windows automatic update, but it seems to do what you want:
The caveat is that I agree with most people - your computer often needs to be restarted for a reason. Unless you're busy decoding the human genome 24 hours a day, taking the time to reboot is an necessary, if not always convenient, task.
Michael
Posted 2010-04-22T09:25:21.523
Reputation: 1 185
Still seems to work for Win7 :-) – Jonas Heidelberg – 2011-09-20T11:01:38.027
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Not a full answer for you, but you can set the NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers regkey value. That is just for MS reboots, though (such as Windows Update), not other programs.
More info:
Apparently, you must also set AUOptions to 4 (Automatically download and schedule installation of updates) in order for this override to be respected.
I just lost some work from an auto-restart while I was away from the computer, so I guess I'll find out if this works next time around (:
Another option is 3rd party tools. Example: Don't Sleep (I can't vouch for it, though).
jwd
Posted 2010-04-22T09:25:21.523
Reputation: 2 652
1
When you install a software or update and it asks you to reboot, it does this because the installation can't be completed until next reboot. If you installed a program, and don't want to use it immediately (for example because you want to install several other programs first), just say "do not reboot". I don't think there are many programs that reboot the computer without asking you first.
It is really a pain though that automatic updates agressively ask you to reboot (while most of the security updates they fix aren't of immediate danger). Just do as Mepher said.
petersohn
Posted 2010-04-22T09:25:21.523
Reputation: 2 554
Windows Update gives you 10 minutes to dismiss the reboot dialog. If you don't react, e.g. because you are actually doing work, it does a force restart. – oberlies – 2013-08-22T12:11:10.657
5I think you're asking for trouble...Eventually, one day you will reboot for some reason... and you'll have so many programs with so much to do on reboot that the potential for a foul up will be very high. – Mick – 2010-04-22T09:31:54.097
You can do it manually from cmd.exe by running this command:
sc stop wuauserv. – Mehper C. Palavuzlar – 2010-04-22T09:33:08.227@mehper: that looks like it only stops automatic updates. is that correct? so it would have no effect on some other application's install prompting to reboot. – quack quixote – 2010-04-22T09:34:27.273
You could strip yourself of the permissions to shut the computer down through group policies I think. It's still a bad idea, though. – Joey – 2010-04-22T09:52:53.237
1Just disable automatic updates. Most corporate LANs are not set up to automatically install updates from Microsoft, so why should you? Then you can run it once a month say. – adolf garlic – 2010-04-22T10:11:01.600
@quack: Yes it is. – Mehper C. Palavuzlar – 2010-04-22T10:34:08.300
1Sure, he would be asking for trouble if he'd never ever want to reboot his computer. But the way I read it, he probably just wants the rebooting to happen at his natural cycle, for example when shutting down the computer for the night. That's really not an unreasonable thing to ask for - that reboot can easily wait for a few hours of browsing around the net. Of course there are risks, but I can easily think of cases where a reboot-nagging box would be completely useless for me. – Ilari Kajaste – 2011-01-07T14:27:13.713
> How do I prevent Windows from rebooting ever? You may as well ask how to prevent your car from ever turning off. Even ignoring the excessive wear-and-tear on the engine and such (ie, “updates, resource leaks, etc.”), eventually it will reach a point where it has to turn off by running out of gas or overheating (ie, “crash, BSOD, out of memory, etc.”). – Synetech – 2012-02-15T02:07:09.997