Windows Update reminder, auto reboot

The Windows update feature works fine on my XP SP2 system. However, many
times I want to continue working with my computer after the update is
downloaded, since the update is automatically downloaded, I may be in the
middle of another project at the time.

But, some moron programmer at MS decided that it would be cool to have a
pop-up window appear every few minutes if one does not restart their
computer right away. Now today I noticed that a different pop-up window
comes up and prompts me to restart the computer - and if I don't select
"Restart Later" the computer will restart on its own in 5 minutes!!!! Just
what I need to wipe out any jobs or files I am working on. If I had not been
at my computer today to see the message I would have lost a rendering files
and hours of work. The message will continue to appear every few minutes if
one does not restart their computer.

Is there any way to allow the updates to be downloaded automatically, but
not have that moronic warning come up and threaten to restart my computer?

I just do not understand the mentality of these idiots at Microsoft (and
other companies) that come up with such annoying and useless features. Do
they not have anything better to do, or are they just plain dumb???

Jason

News wrote:

> The Windows update feature works fine on my XP SP2 system. However, many
> times I want to continue working with my computer after the update is
> downloaded, since the update is automatically downloaded, I may be in the
> middle of another project at the time.
>
> But, some moron programmer at MS decided that it would be cool to have a
> pop-up window appear every few minutes if one does not restart their
> computer right away. Now today I noticed that a different pop-up window
> comes up and prompts me to restart the computer - and if I don't select
> "Restart Later" the computer will restart on its own in 5 minutes!!!! Just
> what I need to wipe out any jobs or files I am working on. If I had not been
> at my computer today to see the message I would have lost a rendering files
> and hours of work. The message will continue to appear every few minutes if
> one does not restart their computer.
>
> Is there any way to allow the updates to be downloaded automatically, but
> not have that moronic warning come up and threaten to restart my computer?
Hi

For the time being, there is nothing you can do with it.

But I see that the future Windows Updates/Automatic Updates (WU/AU)
client that is now installed by the beta version of Windows Update
Services (WUS) have a better handling of this. I assume that this WU
client also will be available for ordinary WU/AU users sometime next
year (WUS is scheduled to be released sometime in 1.s half of 2005).


--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scr...r/default.mspx

I'm with you on this one Jason. As a former MS MVP (DTS) I cant imagine
wth they were thinking when they did this. While its sound logic to
finish the update its not always a good time. I had my work laptop set
to full auto untill last night when it started to pull in over modem
whil I was at home. It would not let me pause the D/L at all #$@#. So I
wound up just shutting the machine down untill I came into work the
next day and then let it update (yes I event tried to set it to only
notify me of the updates and rebooting but it seems in their infinite
wisdom MS has decided if it starts to download it will finish). When I
got into work I let it D/L and click the tray icon to install it and
chose custom. Of course now its being a nag and wants to restart.

I've seen some arguments that the reason for this is that it replaces
not in use files and some files in use dont get replaced so you have a
half patched machine that may be unstable. Well that doesnt make much
sense and here is why. If a file is in use and unable to be replaced
then MS has to schedule it through a task launched during reboot that
will do it for them. If that file has dependancies they should also be
scheduled rather than replaced willy nilly. If they are replacing them
in this manner then shame on them.

What someone at MS isnt realizing is this stupid NAG screen while
relating importaint information is more likely to alienate and tick off
more people than it will help. What do I do when some component of MS's
annoys me? Well I shut it off/remove it/disable it/delete it. Thats
certainly counterproductive then isnt it? Far better for the nag to go
away and the user will eventually reboot.

MS needs to keep in mind to that not every machine is exposed to the
'wild' every moment of every day. When at work I am very well protected
(although no protection is perfect). When at home on dialup I am more
vulnerable but I am protected there as well.

wrote:

> I'm with you on this one Jason. As a former MS MVP (DTS) I cant imagine
> wth they were thinking when they did this. While its sound logic to
> finish the update its not always a good time. I had my work laptop set
> to full auto untill last night when it started to pull in over modem
> whil I was at home. It would not let me pause the D/L at all #$@#. So I
> wound up just shutting the machine down untill I came into work the
> next day and then let it update (yes I event tried to set it to only
> notify me of the updates and rebooting but it seems in their infinite
> wisdom MS has decided if it starts to download it will finish).
Hi

As Automatic Updates uses BITS, this is how to pause this type of
inconvenient downloads:

1. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.

2. In the list of services, double-click on Background Intelligent
Transfer Service

3. In the Startup type list, set it do Disabled, and click Apply
Then click on the Stop button to stop the download.


When back at a location with better bandwidth, set the service type
back to Manual for the BITS service, and the download will resume
where it left off.


--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scr...r/default.mspx