Windows 7 Home: Stop automatic installation of updates on shut down

Windows XP used to give you the option to shut down your PC without installing Windows updates or to choose to shut it down and install updates,but this feature seems to be missing in Windows 7.

One of my PC's runs Windows 7 Professional and it also comes with the Group policy Editor (gpdeit.msc) that can be used to tweak the registry so that you get the option to shut down with/without installing updates. It is fairly straightforward to do.

However another of my PC's runs Windows 7 Home and it does not come with gpedit.msc.



I downloaded the Group Policy Settings References for Windows 7 and Windows Server Excel file (Download: Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows and Windows Server - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details), and scrolled down to the Windows Updates lines at the end of the Administrative Templates tab; but I was unable to find the registry references in my registry. Specifically in order to enable "Do Not Adjust Default Option to Install Updates and Shut Down", I could not find the registry entries listed in the spreadsheet under either the HKCU or HKLM portions of my registry.



Does anybody know which registry settings I need to change to enable the choice to shut down with/without installing updates, or if i is possible to enable gpedit.msc to run on a Windows 7 Home PC?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Windows 7 still gives you the choice of how and when Windows Updates are downloaded and installed. This tutorial should help.

Windows Update Settings - Change

marsmimar: thanks for the response. I'm aware of these options, but I still want Windows to download the updates automatically and most of the time I will want it to install them on shut down; it's just that sometimes I just want to have the option to shut down without installing them - like I had with XP and have with Windows 7 Professional. Is there a way to do this with Windows 7 Home?

windude99: Many thanks for the suggestion and the link to the hack. Hopefully that will resolve the issue.