Configuring Automatic Updates by editing the registry

Date September 29, 2010 Author By kadmin Category Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows XP

In a non-Active Directory environment, you can edit registry settings to configure Automatic Updates.

Note You must manually create these registry keys.

You can use either of the following methods to set these registry keys:

• Manually edit the registry by using Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
• Centrally deploy these registry keys by using the Windows NT 4.0-style System Policy functionality.

To use Registry Editor, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, and then type regedit in the Open box.
2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdateAU
3. Add any one of the following settings:
   • Value name: NoAutoUpdate
     Value data: 0 or 1
     • 0: Automatic Updates is enabled (default).
     • 1: Automatic Updates is disabled.

     Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD

   • Value name: AUOptions
     Value data: 1 to 4
     • 1: Keep my computer up to date has been disabled in Automatic Updates.
     • 2: Notify of download and installation.
     • 3: Automatically download and notify of installation.
     • 4: Automatically download and scheduled installation.

     Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD

   • Value name: ScheduledInstallDay
     Value data: 0 to 7
     • 0: Every day.
     • 1 through 7: The days of the week from Sunday (1) to Saturday (7).

     Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD

   • Value name: ScheduledInstallTime
     Value data: n, where n equals the time of day in a 24-hour format (0-23).
     Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD
   • Value name: UseWUServer
     Value data: Set this value to 1 to configure Automatic Updates to use a server that is running Software Update Services instead of Windows Update.
     Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD
   • Value name: RescheduleWaitTime
     Value data: m, where m equals the time to wait between the time Automatic Updates starts and the time it begins installations where the scheduled times have passed. The time is set in minutes from 1 to 60, representing 1 minute to 60 minutes)
     Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD

     Note This setting only affects client behavior after the clients have updated to the SUS SP1 client version or later.

   • Value name: NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers
     Value data: Reg_DWORD: 0 (false) or 1 (true). If set to 1, Automatic Updates does not automatically restart a computer while users are logged on.
     Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD

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