Preventing automatic restart

I'm intensely angry right now, I'm having a great deal of difficulty
maintaining my composure, so this might be a bit unfocused.

I just came back to my PC, having been away for less than 20 minutes, to
find that it had restarted itself after downloading an update. I had at least
a dozen documents open on the machine and a VMWare virtual session running
that I was using to work with an IDE.
None of it was saved to disk. My machine is attached to a UPS, and I
routinely use the Sleep function to carry on where I left off the previous
night. I've lost - God knows - days and days of work because Windows decided
it would close everything down without my consent.

I wouldn't be surprised if the update was just another revision of the vile
Genuine Advantage application. I don't want to check because if I discovered
that to be the case I wouldn't be held responsible for my actions. What an
unbelievably awful, stupid, irresponsible 'feature'. I don't even want to
contemplate how much work I'm going to have to redo, the last few days have
been a nightmarish grind.

Thanks Microsoft, you've left me feeling shellshocked and dispairing.

How can I stop this from ever happening again?

Michael

Open Control Panel, click Classic View. Double click Windows Update. In the
left side menu, select Change Settings.

Select the 'Check for updates, but let me choose......' option. This will
allow WU to notify you when new updates are available and you can perform
the update when you wish. If a reboot is required, you will get a pop up
that will allow you to delay the reboot for up to 4 hours.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"Micheal" <Micheal@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A6D36AA4-1863-43D1-B850-40CD0E5F0BDC@microsoft.com...

> I'm intensely angry right now, I'm having a great deal of difficulty
> maintaining my composure, so this might be a bit unfocused.
>
> I just came back to my PC, having been away for less than 20 minutes, to
> find that it had restarted itself after downloading an update. I had at
> least
> a dozen documents open on the machine and a VMWare virtual session running
> that I was using to work with an IDE.
> None of it was saved to disk. My machine is attached to a UPS, and I
> routinely use the Sleep function to carry on where I left off the previous
> night. I've lost - God knows - days and days of work because Windows
> decided
> it would close everything down without my consent.
>
> I wouldn't be surprised if the update was just another revision of the
> vile
> Genuine Advantage application. I don't want to check because if I
> discovered
> that to be the case I wouldn't be held responsible for my actions. What an
> unbelievably awful, stupid, irresponsible 'feature'. I don't even want to
> contemplate how much work I'm going to have to redo, the last few days
> have
> been a nightmarish grind.
>
> Thanks Microsoft, you've left me feeling shellshocked and dispairing.
>
> How can I stop this from ever happening again?

Micheal wrote:

> I'm intensely angry right now, I'm having a great deal of difficulty
> maintaining my composure, so this might be a bit unfocused.
>
> I just came back to my PC, having been away for less than 20 minutes, to
> find that it had restarted itself after downloading an update. I had at least
> a dozen documents open on the machine and a VMWare virtual session running
> that I was using to work with an IDE.
> None of it was saved to disk. My machine is attached to a UPS, and I
> routinely use the Sleep function to carry on where I left off the previous
> night. I've lost - God knows - days and days of work because Windows decided
> it would close everything down without my consent.
>
> I wouldn't be surprised if the update was just another revision of the vile
> Genuine Advantage application. I don't want to check because if I discovered
> that to be the case I wouldn't be held responsible for my actions. What an
> unbelievably awful, stupid, irresponsible 'feature'. I don't even want to
> contemplate how much work I'm going to have to redo, the last few days have
> been a nightmarish grind.
>
> Thanks Microsoft, you've left me feeling shellshocked and dispairing.
>
> How can I stop this from ever happening again?

Learn how to configure your computer. After all, it was *your*
decision to allow updates to install automatically. This has always
been unwise, for the very reason you've just experienced.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot