Nothing is more annoying than working in the zone and getting interrupted. When it turns out Windows Update is pestering you to reboot, a double homicide is imminent.
Microsoft likes to “help out” by installing patches in the middle of the night. That is a good thing. But whatever goodwill they earn with this convenience is immediately destroyed when first thing in the morning a “reboot computer” message appears. And appears… and appears…
If you choose Restart Later, it waits about 10 minutes and then pops this screen up again. Argggh!
It occurred to me some of you may hate this as much as I do, but you don’t want to go fiddling around in Services.msc or have to memorize “net stop” commands. Worse is the articles that teach you to shut it off permanently. If you shut it off for good, you don’t get updates unless you manually go to Windows Update. In the long run, this can be more painful than rebooting as soon as you see the message.
So to address this problem, I created a simple little app called Leave Me Alone! When you run it and click the “Leave Me Alone” button it temporarily turns off the source of these restart messages. It is certain to boost your productivity when the WU Restart beast comes calling.
I see about 5 advantages to using this software:
-
You can get back to work immediately
-
Does not permanently disable your updates
-
You don’t have to memorize net-stop commands
-
You don’t have to fish around in the system services panel
-
You don’t have to set a system policy
Trivia: I coded Leave Me Alone! in C#. It is my first stand alone C# program. Woot!
Download Leave Me Alone! (Windows XP/Vista)
Want more free software that keeps you more productive? Be sure to subscribe to my software-riffic RSS feed.
{ 11 trackbacks }
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice idea but the only thing your app do is shutdown the Windows Update service.
Erwin, yes, i had indicated that originally. The point is many people don’t want to have to learn the method of doing that or memorize the shutdown command(s).
This saves a few keystrokes and solves the problem.
Those “midnight patches” always seem to happen when I’ve left my Pc running doing something I want to get to straight away in the morning, only to find MS has done an update which means all my browser windows have to reload (and hopefully nothing gets lost).
daves last blog post..Sound Card Driver Download – Get The Sound Card Drivers For Your PC The Easy Way
Yes its pretty annoying when these updates comes up. And what’s worse sometimes when I just kept on pressing “Later” my PC crashes.. hmph..
Thanks a lot. I’m so tired of leaving something running overnight just to come back the next morning and the computer has been restarted.
Thank you for the free software. Accidentally found your website while surfing internet.
This is really usefull software
mails last blog post..Backup Computer Devices Driver
I personally prefer to:
1. Create a notepad file, save it as whateveryouwant.bat
2. Paste the following: net stop “automatic updates”
3. Save, then double-click.
Same thing as your program, but with less clicks
Crana – it is dangerous to totally stop uploads from you pc,
Deepfreeze lets you update as much as needed and once you restart everything goes back to normal.
Wow, I can live with the extra usability (If that’s what Microsoft calls it) that ships with Microsoft products. But it’s the annoyance that I can’t live with. Thanks for the great resource. Found it useful.
Cheers.
Cool! However, it would be more logical to have “LeaveMeAlone!” give the order “Stop Windows from nagging *me* to reboot after an update” instead… ;D
(No, “Pitnicker” is not the sound one might hear after clamping a horse’s muzzle in their axial cavity! XD)
)
(Well, maybe it is…
Nice little app. You know what, I recently go so nuts, I just went and disabled the automatic updates. Now I just have a schedule that I use to update manually on my own.
lyndseys last blog post..Get the Best Credit Card Rates
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place.
Hi there,
This application is great. I kept turning off the automatic restart manually but then would forget and have to look it up again.
I’m still not a big fan of Windows, but at least your application has made it slightly less tiresome to use!
–Peter
you cant just turn off automatic updates! a better option is to only stop the auto restart function; http://lifehacker.com/software/top/get-rid-of-windows-update-restart-nag-183976.php