Stop Restart Now Restart Later Dialog After Windows Updates

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:56:43 +0000

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 software programs 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.

There is however a solution to the problem instead of having to click on the Reboot Later button dozens of times. The dialog is fueled 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.

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.

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Stop Restart Now Restart Later Dialog After Windows Updates