[SOLVED] Windows 10 sneakily updating at night deleting all my work

horstp

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Someone else here had a similar problem:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/pc-rebooting-multiple-times-a-night.3669611/?view=date

I had offered him this solution:
I had this very same problem and just managed to fix it. It was indeed Windows Update and since it will only to allow you to disable these automatic updates for a couple of days, I killed the Windows Updated routine altogether using the command "run" (just type in) executing "services.msc" and finding "Windows Update" in the list, stopping it ("End" in the context menu) and setting the launch option to "Disabled" instead of "Manual" in Properties. To reactivate just run services.msc again and set it back to "Automatic" as well as selecting "Start" from the context menu where you selected "End" before.
This is at your own risk, obviously, as stopping windows from updating will make it more vulnerable and stuff.

Now I've just had my computer do one of those Windows Update reboots in the middle of the night again. This really ticks me off.

Do you know if the Windows Update Service can set itself back to Active after I have deaktivated it the way described above?

Oh and yes, I am aware that these updates are important for security and that I could just save my work before going to bed. But regardless, I don't want my PC to be doing stuff I don't want it to do.

Does anyone know a solution?
 
Solution
You requested info on the little orange notification after an update.
This, from one of my laptops that had not been turned on or updated since mid-Dec.

Directly when the Update is complete.
mZRUM73.jpg


At the Power button at bottom left:
5zBOw2q.jpg

There is also a similar on the Taskbar.

Click "Schedule the restart" goes to...
This is also seen if you click the notification on the taskbar.
d10XagM.jpg



Multiple options to do it now, or tell it when.

horstp

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Which version of Win 10? Home or Pro?

If Pro, you can delay updates for 35 days.
So, once a month, devote an hour to catching up with updates and reboots. On your schedule.
Then, reset the 35 day clock.
I'm probably too air-headed to do that, I'd forget and then have this same problem again after 35 days. I have Windows 10 Pro.

I really just want to turn updates off. I have found this solution, I wasn't aware that I also had to set Recovry at first failure to "No action". Maybe that fixes it.
 

horstp

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Which version of Win 10? Home or Pro?

If Pro, you can delay updates for 35 days.
So, once a month, devote an hour to catching up with updates and reboots. On your schedule.
Then, reset the 35 day clock.
No offense, I don't want to come across ungrateful. I do appreciate your answer, but I really don't care if my Windows ever gets updated again, so I was looking for a solution that just addresses my grievance for good.
 
I had a quick look at the link provided by OP, but this make me confusing regarding the actual nature of the problem. The post linked to sems to describe a problem possible caused by unstable main voltage, and this is not mentioned in this post.

Can I ask what kind of work are lost, possible what application that is critical to not disturb?
 

horstp

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Well, you can't (and shouldn't) defer updates "forever".
Not with the standard user interface. But you can disable the Windows Update service and prevent it from launching ever again. But it takes a couple of steps and I was hoping someone here could walk me through those.
I do not know of a permanent solution.
Okay!
I had a quick look at the link provided by OP, but this make me confusing regarding the actual nature of the problem. The post linked to sems to describe a problem possible caused by unstable main voltage, and this is not mentioned in this post.
Yeah, the OP in the thread I linked to ended up having another problem, but that early into the thread it looked a lot like my issue. I had just previously googled for solutions so I shared what I had found with the OP.

Now it turns out that even if you disable Windows Update, Windows finds a way to re-activate it and so, if you really want it disabled, you have to disable this recovery automation as ell. The link I provided offers 4 ways of doing that, but I don't understand why you need for different approaches, every single one should work, right?
Can I ask what kind of work are lost, possible what application that is critical to not disturb?
After each of those reboots your MS Office documents and Notepad documents are restored, as are open browser tabs. What gets lost is progress on websites, let's say you had typed something or filled out a form, if you had a youtube tab open and the video paused the video suddenly starts blaring in the middle of the night (happened to me with a power metal playlist o_O), any progress in games is lost as they are not even restarted and all other applications which windows doesn't know or consider important are simply closed and all progress or work is lost.

But I am really not looking for a workaround for restoring the lost data, I simply want to stop my PC from rebooting without my permission ever again.

And as I said, I really don't care if I never get another Windows 10 update.
 

USAFRet

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And as I said, I really don't care if I never get another Windows 10 update.
Would seem to fly in the face of...
Oh and yes, I am aware that these updates are important for security


At some point, updates need to happen, and the system needs to reboot for some of them.

I offered an easy built in solution that needs touching once a month.
I wish you good luck, sir.
Please don't let your system become part of a bot farm that affects all the rest of us.
 
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horstp

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I'm sorry, it's just that I thought I had a relatively straight-forward question, but instead of an answer, I got suggestions on why I shouldn't ask my question in the first place.

I appreciate your concern, but the 35-days solution just doesn't work for me. I know myself. I will forget and on day 36 will have a rude awakening with all my work lost again.

Yes - I know, the proper way of tackling this would be to completely change the way I use my PC. Save all progress regularly, turn off the PC every night when I go to bed rather then letting one Windows session last months, not have 800 tabs open in Browser, not leave important tabs open in incognito mode without at least saving the URLs, etc. But I know I won't do that. Just like I won't do sports either. So I have to find a solution that works for me and, as far as I can tell, my only choice is, really, to completely prevent my PC from rebooting without my permission.

I find it weird that Windows doesn't give me that option. I mean, why is there an option to suspend updates for 35 days, but no option to get a popup for the update asking me to give permission for my machine to be rebooted? And I know you're not Microsoft, I'm not expecting an answer.
 
D

Deleted member 14196

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You can always buy yourself a license for windows server and turn off the updates service

As far as turning it off in windows 10 you’re just spitting in the wind. It’s never gonna happen and you’re never going to find a solution. so you may as well just get used to it

In all my years running windows 10 I have never lost any work due to an update. not once. so if you’re losing work there’s something you’re doing wrong
 
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Or you could, you know, just back stuff up. It's not Windows fault you can't be bothered to back up your work regularly like a normal person. Really this is not a problem with a lack of configurability in Windows. It's a lack of taking responsibility, by you, for having good work practices. If things you are doing are THAT important, then it should be important enough for you to remember to back up your work each time you walk away from the computer.

Not doing so is simply either laziness or irresponsibility. Eliminate those and then it wouldn't make much difference what Windows did or did not do.
 

DSzymborski

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It's really hard to give advice for an unbelievably bizarre edge case without, well, giving us details about the unbelievably bizarre edge case. If you can't give us some answers about what you're doing, that's fine, but you can't expect any useful answers in return. Because from this position, it's a little like someone asking how to keep the hallway smoke detector from going off every time they light their living room couch on fire, but not answering the obvious question as to why they're lighting their living room couch on fire regularly.
 

horstp

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Hey guys, I just want to emphasise again, that I appreciate your responses.
You can always buy yourself a license for windows server and turn off the updates service

As far as turning it off in windows 10 you’re just spitting in the wind. It’s never gonna happen and you’re never going to find a solution. so you may as well just get used to it

In all my years running windows 10 I have never lost any work due to an update. not once. so if you’re losing work there’s something you’re doing wrong
Okay, if you think there is no solution, that's fine. I have posted a link to another site that offers four different pathways to what I want, I was hoping someone could let me know which if these is the most reasonable one, in terms of general impact on the system and reversibility. (https://windowsreport.com/windows-u... reason why windows,, hopefully, make it stop.)

And I guess I am doing something wrong. But it seems easier to me to change Windows Update than how I live my life.
Or you could, you know, just back stuff up. It's not Windows fault you can't be bothered to back up your work regularly like a normal person. Really this is not a problem with a lack of configurability in Windows. It's a lack of taking responsibility, by you, for having good work practices. If things you are doing are THAT important, then it should be important enough for you to remember to back up your work each time you walk away from the computer.

Not doing so is simply either laziness or irresponsibility. Eliminate those and then it wouldn't make much difference what Windows did or did not do.
Yes, I am lazy and irresponsible. But my question wasn't about getting life advice from strangers on the internet, I simply wanted to know how to perform a specific task on Windows 10 that Microsoft clearly doesn't want me to be able to succeed with. If you don't know how I can do it, fine, but I really don't understand why my motivation for asking the question is such a big deal for you.

And I never said the things I was doing were THAT important. They aren't. This is a minor inconvenience, but it annoys me, because it keeps happening, I keep losing "some" stuff and because it keeps happening due to Windows arbitrarily deciding when is a good time to kill my programs. In Windows 7 I could just ignore the update prompts, but Windows 10 forces reboots.
It's really hard to give advice for an unbelievably bizarre edge case without, well, giving us details about the unbelievably bizarre edge case. If you can't give us some answers about what you're doing, that's fine, but you can't expect any useful answers in return. Because from this position, it's a little like someone asking how to keep the hallway smoke detector from going off every time they light their living room couch on fire, but not answering the obvious question as to why they're lighting their living room couch on fire regularly.
I really don't understand why this is a bizarre edge case. A google search for "permanently disable windows update" yields 25 million results. answer.microsoft.com is full of people asking for exactly the same I have asked for. And I really don't understand why you need to know why I want to do this.

I mean, my OP wasn't "Windows keeps rebooting in the night and I lose work, please help". I concede that I didn't word my question very well, but all I wanted to know is how to stop Windows Update from reactivating itself after I had deactivated it manually. I know there are other, more wholesome ways to change the outcome of these update reboots, but I just want to know how to disable Windows Update for as long as I want it to, not as long as Windows graciously allows me to.

And I think the better comparison would be to a chain smoker asking how to disable the smoke detector in his house which he occupies completely by himself in a reasonably isolated, unforested location, because he wants to smoke in peace and is willing to lose his house on the freak chance of a fire breaking out. :D
 

DSzymborski

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I really don't understand why this is a bizarre edge case. A google search for "permanently disable windows update" yields 25 million results. answer.microsoft.com is full of people asking for exactly the same I have asked for. And I really don't understand why you need to know why I want to do this.

I mean, my OP wasn't "Windows keeps rebooting in the night and I lose work, please help". I concede that I didn't word my question very well, but all I wanted to know is how to stop Windows Update from reactivating itself after I had deactivated it manually. I know there are other, more wholesome ways to change the outcome of these update reboots, but I just want to know how to disable Windows Update for as long as I want it to, not as long as Windows graciously allows me to.

No, your edge case isn't what you want Windows to do, but why you want Windows to do what you want it to do. What is this "progress" that you can't just save like a normal person? Why 800 browser windows? Most people who want to stop Windows Update are doing it for coherent, if misguided, reasons.

If you can't give any explanation as to why you can't just save your progress like every other person in existence. It's hard to answer "how do you make my foot feel better" if the reason is "I want my foot to feel better, but I don't want to take out the knife that I stuck in my foot."

My retired mom gets tricked by banner ads and can't remember where she saved any file. But even she knows how to save something she's working on.

I just don't understand why you can't use your computer in a way that someone who has ever used a computer would use a computer. So I'm looking for some explanation as to an actual reason for this.
 

horstp

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No, your edge case isn't what you want Windows to do, but why you want Windows to do what you want it to do. What is this "progress" that you can't just save like a normal person? Why 800 browser windows? Most people who want to stop Windows Update are doing it for coherent, if misguided, reasons.

If you can't give any explanation as to why you can't just save your progress like every other person in existence. It's hard to answer "how do you make my foot feel better" if the reason is "I want my foot to feel better, but I don't want to take out the knife that I stuck in my foot."

My retired mom gets tricked by banner ads and can't remember where she saved any file. But even she knows how to save something she's working on.

I just don't understand why you can't use your computer in a way that someone who has ever used a computer would use a computer. So I'm looking for some explanation as to an actual reason for this.
The why is completely irrelevant. I asked a purely technical question and all I get is life advice. I am also overweight. Wanna give me nutritional advice, too? I know my way of using my PC is dysfunctional, but I really didn't ask for advice on that.

I don't want my PC to reboot without my permission. End of story.

Even if no work was lost, no youtube videos started playing in the middle of the night, no games were killed, no incognito browsing windows deleted, etc. Even if no app was running at all at the time, I don't want Microsoft to decide when to reboot my PC.
 
D

Deleted member 14196

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Well have fun not achieving your goal I guess

Unless you use a different operating system like Linux or Server 2019. End of story
 
D

Deleted member 14196

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How am I so sure LOL. Because I’ve tried and I’ve tried all those stupid links. And what I have found is that it keeps getting reset. The reason I wanted to do it was for testing purposes in virtual machines I wanted to turn it off so that I wouldn’t be bothered with it updating while I was running tests. Now this is a use case that makes sense and still it was not possible so I gave up on it

Like I said maybe Linux is more for you
 

horstp

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It does NOT happen on mine.
If needed, there is a little orange dot on the Power button choices.
"Update and shut down"
or
"Update and reboot"

It does nothing until I tell it to.
But eventually, it is going to have to complete that update.
Do you have a screen shot? I don't see that orange dot.