Win 10 - Scheduled Restart & Updates

SgtBob

Hi All,

I'm setting up a Win 10 machine to run headless.

I'll be using Task Scheduler to run a weekly restart. My question is, if there are pending updates will they install when the scheduled restart runs?

I know you can set windows to automatically install and restart outside of active hours, but I want to more tightly control when restarts occur and updates install.

Thanks

28064212

There's no guarantee that Windows 10 won't just force a restart when there are updates available. You can only set "Active Hours" to a limited range.

seamus

There's a version of Windows 10 called LTSB (Long-Term Servicing Branch), which only receives security updates. This should mean that any updates to be applied are minimal.

Outside of that, you use Local computer policy to control how and when updates are installed. If you want it to restart at 2am on a Sunday, you could schedule all of your updates to happen at 1am.

28064212

seamus wrote: »

There's a version of Windows 10 called LTSB (Long-Term Servicing Branch), which only receives security updates

Only available for Enterprise

seamus wrote: »

Outside of that, you use Local computer policy

Not available on Windows Home

seamus

28064212 wrote: »

Not available on Windows Home

/facepalm

I wonder if you can replicate the behaviour through registry changes and whether the Home version will accept them?

CatInABox

seamus wrote: »

/facepalm

I wonder if you can replicate the behaviour through registry changes and whether the Home version will accept them?

No, it's pretty definite. Overall, I'd still defend this as a good policy for "everyone", but it does result in edge cases like this.

The only thing I can think of would be to block access to the Windows Update servers through a timed firewall. Might work, but not sure how much is possible.

28064212

CatInABox wrote: »

No, it's pretty definite. Overall, I'd still defend this as a good policy for "everyone", but it does result in edge cases like this.

It's most definitely a bad policy. And it's a bad implementation of a bad policy. It would be different if Windows had a proper post-restart "restore" function, where it would save all open programs states, and bring them back after a restart. The current policy means any programs that don't have their own "recovery" method lose data if they're open when a restart is forced.

Not to mention the absurdity of a forced restart happening while you're using it, just because you happen to be using it outside of a totally inflexible "Active Hours" range

CatInABox

28064212 wrote: »

It's most definitely a bad policy. And it's a bad implementation of a bad policy. It would be different if Windows had a proper post-restart "restore" function, where it would save all open programs states, and bring them back after a restart. The current policy means any programs that don't have their own "recovery" method lose data if they're open when a restart is forced.

Not to mention the absurdity of a forced restart happening while you're using it, just because you happen to be using it outside of a totally inflexible "Active Hours" range

I'll agree that the current implementation could be a lot better, but there's no way that you'll convince me that automatic update for the masses isn't a good thing. It's just too beneficial for everyone to be running up to date, secure software. I've seen too many machines completely destroyed by malware because their owners always said "the updates were annoying me, so I turned it off", or "I meant to update, but didn't have time."

I'll freely admit that it's a total pain when it suddenly decides to update, but I'll happily take that if it means that the 70% of people who never ran the updates are now protected.

As for helping the OP again, another option would be to turn on Metered Connection. That'll stop Windows update from downloading anything automatically. It will download if you click download, but it does have other effects too. Stuff like Bittorrent might not work. I suppose it will depend on what you use your headless computer for.

28064212

CatInABox wrote: »

I'll agree that the current implementation could be a lot better, but there's no way that you'll convince me that automatic update for the masses isn't a good thing

Automatic Update ≠ Forced Restarts. Force the install of updates, sure (although they should still allow disabling via the registry IMO), but there is no acceptable reason to force a restart without confirmation from the user

CatInABox

28064212 wrote: »

Automatic Update ≠ Forced Restarts. Force the install of updates, sure (although they should still allow disabling via the registry IMO), but there is no acceptable reason to force a restart without confirmation from the user

The problem with giving everyone the option to disable them is that an awful lot of people would disable them, including people who would then never run updates again, thus causing the same security and malware problems that we've seen over the years.

I do agree with the restart thing, that should be my call. Even though I disagree with it, I can still see why they'd do it though, as none of the security patches would take affect until it's been restarted.

Ishmael

I know there are scripts available online which you can use to download and install updates from windows update. It isn't too difficult to call those scripts from task scheduler with a reboot thrown in at the end. I don't think i can link to any particular resources on the subject but a bit of search engine magic should find them easily enough. Depends on your comfort level with scripts though.

SgtBob

Thanks all, I did a bit of googling and found an option in the group policy to automatically download updates and schedule the install. Then scheduling a restart during maintenance window. That should cover me, as I was planning on a weekly scheduled restart anyway.