Windows 7: How to allow Win 7 to download Updates, but only install with approval

Hi All.

I frequently run processes on my pc that go all night. I also often go away from the office for a few days and then need to access the pc (which was left on) remotely to work.

My problem is that when windows finds an update, it just installs it and restarts when it wants to... which can be right in the middle of an important automation.

I also sometimes find that I can't access the pc remotely because it has somehow switched itself off, I'm assuming after an update (sleep is set to 'never').

How can I get Win 7 to download, and tell me about an update, then wait until I say "install"?

All help will be hugely appreciated.

Cheers,

Oliver

Hello Oliver,

When you get to step 3 in the tutorial below, you can set it to Download updates but let me choose whether to install them for this.

Windows Update Settings - Change

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Well... done. Thanks!

I had this issue with a Windows 7 system too, For some reason, just selecting "sleep=never" was not enough - it turned out to be the hibernate setting (which will not be an option on some systems):



It seemed odd to me that selecting "sleep=never" at the top level setting did not set the "hibernation=never" in the advanced settings. And while the screenshot above happens to be from a laptop, some desktops may have this hibernation option and the same 'top level/advanced' issue too.


Edit: and checkout the option mentioned in the second answer in this thread. I use that setting on a remote system where I too want to control when it restarts. I want it to automatically install the updates - but I never want it to automatically restart. When I remote into it, I sometimes see the prompt that it needs to restart. I can then decide if it is a good time for that to happen without having to wait on the updates to install.

You're most welcome Oliver. I'm glad that we could help.