Microsoft has released several security patches in the last 24 hours which every Windows and Office user should install as soon as possible to protect the operating system and software programs running on it from attacks.
A dialog will appear after the updates have been installed if the updates are installed using Windows Updates.
This dialog offers the user the choice to restart the computer now or later. Users who select to restart the computer later will be reminded after some time by the same dialog box which is then repeated in an endless loop until the computer is restarted.
The dialog offers no way of delaying the reminder or letting the operating system know that a manual start will eventually be performed.
Update: The dialog changed in newer versions of Windows. Instead of displaying restart later as an option, it now allows you to display the reminder again in 10 minutes, 1 hour or 4 hours. There is still no option to block the restart request completely.
There is however a solution to the problem that saves you from having to click on “restart later” whenever the dialog appears again on the system.
The dialog is powered by the Automatic Updates service. All that needs to be done to get rid of the Restart Now/Restart Later dialog window is to stop the Automatic Update service.
This will also stop the restart message boxes from appearing. The Automatic Update service will automatically be started by Windows on the next system start.
Stop Restart
Do the following to stop Automatic Updates:
- Press [Windows R], enter [services.msc] and hit enter.
- Locate the Automatic Update service and right-click it.
- Select Stop from the context menu to stop the service.
This procedure will stop the restart now restart later window from appearing on the computer system.
Update: More recent versions of Windows display restart notifications which you can use to delay the automatic restart of the system by ten minutes, one hour or four hours.
Check out Disable Restart after automatic updates for additional options to block the system from restarting the PC automatically after the installation of Windows updates.