How to stop Windows 8 from restarting after every update install [tip]

Microsoft releases rapid updates for Windows 8 operating system to improve its stability, performance and improve the overall speed of the system. While these updates are essential for the maintenance of the PC and very quite when downloading most users don’t mind them. Although these Windows 8 updates from Microsoft download quietly in the background the instant they get annoying is when the operating system asks users to restart the system so it can make the changes downloaded from the web.

Although you can just delay the restart at that moment but getting rid of these notifications is a better way to deal with it if you are not interested in restarting on your computer’s demand ever.

In order to prevent your Windows 8 powered PC from asking to restart the system to install updates follow the step by step guide below.

Note: This method works for Windows 7, too.

1 ) Go to the start screen on your Windows 8 PC and click on the magnifying glass shaped search button, which appears when you push your cursor towards top right side of your screen.

Windows 7 users can simply find the search field on the start menu.

2 ) In the search field type ‘Regedit’ and hit enter. Open the Regedit app from the search results and then from the app go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdateAU

Please note that if you don’t have the WindowsUpdate key on your computer then you can create it by right clicking on the ‘Windows’ key from the sidebar and then clicking on New > Key. Name this key as ‘WindowsKey’ and then open it. After opening it create another key called AU in the same way.

3 ) Now click on the AU key from the right pane and right click on the empty space there. Choose the New > DWORD (32-bit) value.

4 ) Give the following name to this DWORD Value:

NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers

After naming it give it a value of ’1′.

5 ) Now reboot your computer so that the changes could take place. After this restart your computer will never ask you to restart your PC after installing the updates from Windows Update.

That’s all. While Windows 8 and  Windows 7 won’t bother you from now on, do remember to restart your computer manually after installing the updates from the web.

[Hat tip: LifeHacker]