Disable Auto-Restart Prompt after Windows Update (in Windows Vista/7)

An easier way than messing around with the registry, or having to run a command after every update:

Open the Local Group Policy Editor:

Start / Run / gpedit.msc

Find the Windows Update settings:

Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update

Edit these 2 settings:

No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations: Enabled

Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations: Enabled, wait period (minutes): 1440

Now you will not be prompted to restart for 24 hours.

You can manually edit the registry using regedit. The best explanation I've found is from the How To Geek here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/prevent-windows-update-from-forcibly-rebooting-your-computer/ The link contains automatic ways I'm posting the manual method here:

Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box or run dialog, and navigate down to the following key, creating new keys if they don’t exist.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

Create a new 32-bit DWORD value named NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and give it a value of 1 to prevent automatic reboot while users are logged on. Delete the value to put things back to the way they were.