Windows update nearly complete: help I don't want reminding

[#1]

I am on XP Home SP3.
All the methods of disabling permanently the annoying message, which seem to come up as often as a Underground train relate to XP Pro installations. Is there actually a method for XP Home, or am I stuck with the pesky nuisance?

[#2]

Why don't you pause what you are doing and restart the computer (which will enable the installation to complete)?  Then no more messages!

[#3]

Quote from: ReedRichards

Why don't you pause what you are doing and restart the computer (which will enable the installation to complete)?   Then no more messages!

Well, because I do not want to discontinue what I am doing. I should be in control, not Microsoft.
As I wrote the thing is pesky.

[#4]

Presently running on Vista but I would have thought the same would apply - click on the restart icon and you may see this and you can delay it for up to 4 hours

[#5]

Well you're all a lot more patient than I .. I just turn off automatic updates.
Even at work, when they forced it to be on via the domain policy, I stopped the service
Bit dodgy, but then all the messages got on my nerves, and it had a habit of automatically rebooting a test machine when we were running overnight tests.

[#6]

Quote from: lucerne

[As I wrote the thing is pesky.

Well it is, but it is also fairly unusual.  It usually happens after a major update where your computer may be left in an unstable and indeterminate state and you are ill-advised to keep working on it.  If you have this a lot (as the original post implies) you must be one of those people who never turns off their computer (using sleep or standby instead).  Your original post also implied you had the time to seek ways of turning off the message.  I think your time would be better spent complying with it!
Earlier in the year a piece of malware called the Conficker worm made the news.  Various institutions and government departments were hit but this was months after Microsoft had issued a patch to guard against the worm so all the well-publicised hits were on computers that were not running automatic updates.   

[#7]

@Oldjim..it does not exist in CP Home AFAICS
@ReedRichards...sorry if I was tetchy. I did find another suggestion to add a registry key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled"=dword:00000000
"NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers"=dword:00000001

. It made d### all difference.
The post was interesting. I've now compromised to download but i choose when to install.

[#8]

You mean there is actually something useful in Vista compared to XP 

[#9]

You could also change the setting to "download but ask me when to install" then install it at a convenient time.

[#10]

Quote from: lucerne

I do not want to discontinue what I am doing. I should be in control, not Microsoft.

in which case, the solution is obvious: use Linux

[#11]

I had 10 security updates on XP sp3 this morning, I wont let M$S auto download, I want to be in control, had a look and decided that they should be applied, 2.5M,  anly took a short time for it to download, quiet.
However when I went to shut down, the standard shut down said will do, but the 10 downloads will be installed first, so went away to do something useful, came back to find it had shut down

[#12]

Quote

where your computer may be left in an unstable and indeterminate state and you are ill-advised to keep working on it

That'll be whenever you've got Windows running then!!

[#13]

I'm afraid this is just one thing I've accepted as part of the cost of having Windows ! = learnt to live with it - like the ironing !

[#14]

After my OP I did find a  alleged solution that involved creating a new reg key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled"=dword:00000000
"NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers"=dword:00000001

It dis not work, but perhaps was wrong with the input details. If a brain better than mine (there musr be plenty ;D)can tell, I'm curious. In the end I decided to keep auto but choose time to install.
Thanks for replies.

[#15]

If it's just a one time thing, you should be able to stop it temporarily by going to the services menu in control panel, right clicking on "Automatic Updates" and choosing Stop.
Or run this from the command line:
[tt]net stop "automatic updates"[/tt]
Make sure the Service is turned back on after you've rebooted!