Automatic Updates

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Hello,

Every couple of weeks, Windows downloads some updates and then a window pops up telling me I need to restart my computer and saying that Windows will automatically restart unless I click “restart later” in less than 5 minutes (it used to be 7 minutes) and if I don’t catch the pop up window in time, it will cause my computer to restart and will shut down all of Microsoft Word documents without saving any of my changes causing me ot lose many days’ worth of work at a time. Once, I lost about 2 weeks of my dissertation and it caused me to miss my graduation deadlines and to have to pay for a summer session for a full summer session of tuition because I had to be registered in order to be able to turn in the dissertation so I was out over $2000 for tuition. The committee did not accept computer programs as an extenuating circumstance.

How can I fix this (Windows, not the academic committee)? I want to program Word to save all my documents before shutting them down or to not even restart my computer. How can I tell windows not to restart my computer?

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I think you’ll find your answer here. Look for the subheading No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations. If you don’t have pro, you will be forced to edit the registry to effect the change that you want.

You can’t configure Word to save your open documents prior to exiting; but you can configure Autosave. Check the Word board if you’re not sure how to do it (or press F1 in Word).

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(Edited by HansV to make URL clickable – see Help 19)

Hi Mark,

I went to the page you suggested, and I found where it says, “No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations

This policy specifies that Automatic Updates will wait for the computer to be restarted by any user who is logged on to complete a scheduled installation. If this policy is not used, the computer restarts automatically.”

But what do I do with that? How do I turn off automatic updates? Do I click where it says, http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downl…ent/default.asp%5B/url%5D?

When you say “pro” do you mean Microsoft Windows pro? I have Windows XP Home Edition.

Thank you for helping me,

JMT

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If you have Windows XP Home with SP1 or (preferably) SP2, you don’t need those Software Update Services.

In SP2, activate the Security Center control panel. Scroll down and click “Automatic Updates”. Select either the option “Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them” or “Notify me but don’t automatically install them”. The first option, “Automatic (recommended)” gives you too little control, and you should only select the last one “Turn off Automatic Updates” if you have a fixed schedule to visit the Microsoft Update site to review updates.

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Thanks! I hope this will work and I won’t lose anymore work.

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You need to turn OFF the “Auto download and install” and run the updates at a time that is right for you. This way you will have the updates (have the cake) and install them (eat the cake) when you are ready.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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As mentioned, you can change the settings for Automatic Updates to something that suits your better;

• Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them.
  [/list]Or even better, if your work at the PC involve using the net, and you don’t want AU to download files at a time that is inconvenient:
  • Notify me but don’t automatically download or install them.
    [/list]However, don’t forget to install the updates, and if you like do some reading before to check out if any problems are related to any update.

    Your story is truly sad, but you have to realize that anything can happen when using a computer; a power cut, hard disk failure etc. I can’t understand how you can lose more than a days work due to a reboot (well I can, but surely one do not have a PC running 24/7 with the Word editor open for 14 days with no save).

    So, if working on more or less important files, you should save your work at different times during a day. At the end of the day one can save some copies on CD, USB memory or a simple floppy. In this context, more than one copy is good. Also, if that is one reason why you don’t save often, you can always save one copy in Word with another name (as an alternative version) and then work with your main version.

    Also, but it is out of the issue of this thread, you can work with smaller pieces in your editor, i.e. one chapter per file. Maybe you already does that, anyhow take a look at Word’s autosave settings, if you don’t want to save manually.

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I don’t understand how an unexpected reboot is
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causing me ot lose many days’ worth of work at a time

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Surely the most sensible approach to this is to ensure you save your work regularly, and back it up to removable media at least once a day.

This will protect you against all sorts of possible causes of lost data, and will enable you to reliably meet your deadlines.

StuartR

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