Stop Windows from Restarting Your Computer After Updates

1. Head to the Start menu or screen and type "regedit" (no quotes). Start the Registry Editor that pops up.
2. Navigate to:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

   On many computers, you won't see the "WindowsUpdate" key. To create it, right-click on the "Windows" key in the sidebar and go to New > Key. Name the key WindowsUpdate, then right-click on that key and create a new one called AU.
3. Click on the AU key and, in the right pane, right-click on the empty space and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
4. Name the new DWORD:

   NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers

   Double-click on the new DWORD and give it a value of 1.
5. Reboot your machine and from now on, Windows will not force you to reboot after installing updates. Of course, when you install updates, you should still reboot your computer—and that responsibility is now on you—but this makes sure Windows doesn't catch you by surprise.

Again, this registry key has been around for a long time, and should work in Windows 7 as well (but we thought it was worth revisiting for Windows 8). You can also perform the same task with the Group Policy Editor if you're on Windows 8 Pro. Hit the link below to see how.

When the registry editor appears, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AUregistry key.

You’ll likely find that the last two parts of the key — the WindowsUpdate\AU parts — don’t yet exist. You’ll need to create them yourself.

To do so, right-click the Windows key, point to New, and select Key. TypeWindowsUpdate and press Enter. Then, right-click the WindowsUpdate key, point to New, and select Key. Type AU and press Enter. This will create the correct registry key structure.

With the AU key selected in the left pane, right-click in the right pane, point to New, and select DWORD (32-bit) value. Type NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and press Enter to name the new value.

Double-click the value you just created and type 1 into its value data box. You can then click OK — you’re done in the registry.

You can now reboot your computer and your policy changes will take effect. However, you probably don’t want to reboot your computer! Luckily, you can make these changes take effect without rebooting.

First, open a Command Prompt window as Administrator. On Windows 8, press Windows Key + X and select Command Prompt (Admin). On Windows 7, open the Start menu, search for Command Prompt, right-click the Command Prompt shortcut, and select Run as Administrator.

Run the following command to make your changes take effect immediately:

gpupdate /force

Disable Forced Restarts With Group Policy

If you have Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise version of Windows, you can make this tweak in an easier way. Most Windows users won’t have this option and will have to use the registry-editing method above. Both of these tweaks work in the same way, but the group policy editor is a bit more user-friendly.

First, open the Local Group Policy Editor. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, type gpedit.msc into the dialog box, and press Enter to open it.

Navigate to the following folder in the left pane: Computer Configuration\Administrator Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update

In the right pane, double-click the “No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic update installations” setting. Set the setting to Enabled and click OK.

After changing this setting, either reboot your computer or run the gpupdate /forcecommand in the way we mentioned above.

source : http://www.makeuseof.com/