make it so laptop doesn't install automatic updates while sleeping

Question

If automatic updates are awaiting install and my Windows 7 computer is sleeping that computer will magically wake up and install these updates. I find this to be quite annoying and am curious if there's a way to disable this behavior.

It also seems like it could be pretty problematic if my computer was running on battery. It's asleep, in my backpack, turns on to install updates and then the battery goes dead because Windows was a little too trigger happy to install automatic updates.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The registry way

1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Type or paste the following command, and press Enter:

   reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v "AUPowerManagement" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
   

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Using the Group Policy Editor

1. Start gpedit.msc.

2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.

3. Double-click the Enabling Windows Update Power Management to automatically wake up the system to install scheduled updates policy, and set it to Disabled.

At least Windows Vista.

Specifies whether the Windows Update will use the Windows Power Management features to automatically wake up the system from hibernation, if there are updates scheduled for installation.

Windows Update will only automatically wake up the system if Windows Update is configured to install updates automatically. If the system is in hibernation when the scheduled install time occurs and there are updates to be applied, then Windows Update will use the Windows Power management features to automatically wake the system up to install the updates.

Windows update will also wake the system up and install an update if an install deadline occurs.

The system will not wake unless there are updates to be installed. If the system is on battery power, when Windows Update wakes it up, it will not install updates and the system will automatically return to hibernation in 2 minutes.

_{Source: Group Policy Search}