How to Disable Windows Automatic Restart on System Failure

Stop the auto restart after a BSOD in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP

When Windows encounters a serious error, such as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), the default action is to automatically restart your PC, presumably to get you back up and running quickly.

The problem with this default behavior is that it gives you less than a second to read the error message on the screen. It’s nearly possible to see what caused the error in that amount of time.

The automatic restart on system failure can be disabled, which gives you time to read and write down the error so you can begin troubleshooting.

After you disable automatic restart on system failure, Windows will hang on the error screen indefinitely, meaning that you’ll need to restart your computer manually to escape the message.

These directions are relevant for Windows 10 through Windows XP. However, the steps involved in disabling the automatic restart on system failure option differ somewhat depending on which Windows operating system you use. These minor differences are called out below.

How to Stop Automatic Restart on Windows System Failure

You can disable the automatic restart on system failure option in the Startup and Recovery area of System Properties, accessible via Control Panel.

Open Control Panel. In newer versions of Windows, the quickest way is to search for control from the Start menu or Run dialog box.

If you’re using an older version of Windows like Windows 7 or before, go to Start > Control Panel.

If you’re unable to boot into Windows 7 following a BSOD, you can disable auto restart from outside the system via the Advanced Boot Options menu.

In Windows 10, 8, and 7, select System and Security.

In Windows Vista, choose System and Maintenance.

In Windows XP, select Performance and Maintenance.

If you don’t see this option, it’s because you’re viewing Control Panel applets by their icon and not category. Just open System instead, and then skip down to Step 4.

Choose the System link.

Select Advanced system settings from the panel on the left of the screen.

Windows XP only: Open the Advanced tab of System Properties.

In the Startup and Recovery section near the bottom of the new window, choose Settings.

Select the box next to Automatically restart to remove its check mark.

Select OK to save the changes, and then OK again on the System Properties window.

How to Dis­able Win­dows Update Restart Reminder Notifications

Sandeep Agarwal

28 Dec 2012

One of those annoying things about Windows is that it keeps checking for updates with Microsoft. Don’t get me wrong, updating Windows is extremely important and every user should do it regularly. But the way Windows Update reminder system works can annoy the hell out of you and if you’re a longtime PC user, you know what I am talking about.

When it finds new updates, the built-in automatic update process applies the patches or notifies the system user about it. Now, all such notifications appear as pop ups at the system tray area which is very distracting.

To add to it, in most cases, Windows also shows a restart dialog every now and then (10 minutes, by default) after the updates have been applied. Today we will see how to get rid of such alerts and notifications.

Important Note: Getting rid of update alerts involves turning off Windows updates completely. If you choose to do that, you should check for and update the operating system manually, from time to time. Maybe you could set up a separate weekly reminder in a tool of your choice to remind you of this task. A bit counter-productive? Yes, maybe. But less annoying. We will also do some heavy registry editing and Windows registry isn’t to be trifled with if you aren’t a savvy user. So proceed with caution and at your own risk.

Steps to Disable Update Alerts

Alerts are shown if and only if Windows finds new updates. If you turn this feature off, you are good to go.

Step 1: Click on the Start menu icon, type windows update and hit Enter. That should open the window for Windows Update.

Step 2: On the left pane you will see a number of options. Click on the link that reads Change Settings.

Step 3: On the next window, under Important updates section, choose Never check for updates (not recommended) from the drop down menu.

Apply the settings and exit. Having done that, you will not get any notifications regarding Windows updates. However, you may still be shown warning messages stating protection issues. To avoid seeing them too, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Click on the Start menu icon, type action center and hit Enter. That should open the window for Windows Action Center.

Step 2: On the left pane you will see a number of options. Click on the link that reads Change Action Center settings.

Step 3: On the next window, under Turn messages on or off section, uncheck all options for which you want to disable showing of alerts and notifications.

Steps to Disable Restart Reminder

For a temporary solution you will need to turn off Windows updates service. Here’s how:

A Temporary Solution

Step 1: Open Run dialog (Windows key + R), type services.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2: On the services window, search for Windows Update service. Select the service and turn it off by clicking on Stop from the top left.

If you are looking for a permanent tweak you have two options- a registry hack and a group policy editor trick. Let us check out both.

The Registry Hack Way

Step 1: Open Run dialog (Windows key + R), type regedit and hit Enter.

Step 2: On the Registry Editor, navigate to the following location:-

If you do not see anything under Windows directory, create new keys i.e. right-click, select New -> Key. Create WindowsUpdate under Windows and then create AU under WindowsUpdate.

Step 3: Now create a New DWORD under AU as shown in the image below.

Name the DWORD as NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and give it a value of 1. To revert to default settings at any given time, change the value to 0.

If you are running Windows 7 Ultimate, Professional or Enterprise editions, you can choose to tweak a group policy setting as well.

Editing Group Policy Option

Step 1: Open Run dialog (Windows key + R), type gpedit.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2: It opens the Group Policy Editor window. Navigate to the following location:-

Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update

Step 3: Now, on the right pane, look for No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic update installations. Double click on this key and Enable it.

Conclusion

With all these processes defined, I hope you will get some relief over automatic updates, annoying notifications, and useless warning messages. However, as mentioned earlier, you should take care that you perform manual updates and security checks to keep your machine healthy.

Last updated on 8 Feb, 2018
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

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