Archive for the ‘ Windows XP ’ Category

XP Automatic Updates it’s not always convenient

February 11, 2010 | No Comments | Windows XP

We have all been there.  It’s the day after Microsoft has pushed out a ton of patches and your system keeps interrupting you with this simple, solitary, and frustrating message.









We have two choices: 

  1. Restart Now – Yeah, you could get it over with and stop everything that you are
    doing, save everything, and reboot (really who wants to do that).
  2. Restart Later – Sounds good, oh wait later only means 10 minutes later.  The
    Automatic Updates window will popup every 10 minutes, take focus away from the application
    you are using, and generally bug the hell out of you until you finally restart.

So there we are with two choices, two horrible choices…. There has to be a better way.

Luckily there is. 

Stop WUAUSERV the Automatic Update Service

Since the popup is part of the WUAUSERV system used to update your computer if you stop
this service the popup itself will stop as well.  Below I will walk you through
stopping this service by using both the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Command Line
Interface (CLI).

GUI:

  1. Go to the Services snapin by typing “services.msc” at the run prompt or by navigating to
    Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
  2. Find the service labeled Automatic Updates, right click it, and choose Stop.

CLI:

  1. Enter the following command in either the run dialog box or a command prompt:  net stop wuauserv
  2. If wuauserv is a little hard to remember this command will produce the same results: net stop “automatic updates”

Once the service has been stopped the popup will go away and not return, which will allow you to restart at your own convenience.

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