Forum Discussion
Servers not rebooting following update (WSUS)
Has anyone else encountered an issue with servers sometimes not rebooting straight away following an update installed via WSUS? It sits at restart pending for 24 hours, until the next update check is...
Check Windows Update Registry Settings
# Check if NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers is enabled
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers
- Review Group Policy Settings:
- Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update
- Check "No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations"
- Also verify "Configure Automatic Updates" settings
- For Terminal Servers specifically:
- You could create a custom Group Policy to hide or disable the restart option for non-admin users:
- # Via Registry
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" /v NoWindowsUpdate /t REG_DWORD /d 1 - To force immediate restarts after updates:
- # PowerShell script to check for pending reboots and force restart
if (Get-WURebootStatus -Silent) {
Restart-Computer -Force
} - For monitoring and diagnosing:
- Check CBS.log (C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log)
- Review WindowsUpdate.log (use Get-WindowsUpdateLog to generate on newer systems)
- Monitor Task Scheduler for Windows Update related tasks
Thanks. The registry and GPO settings you mention at the beginning of your response all look fine (we had already checked those, and I've just done so again).
As regards the setting for using a GPO to add the NoWindowsUpdate registry entry, isn't that going to prevent updates from installing at all? We don't want to do that - the issue is with the pending reboots after an update not happening for 24 hours.
Thanks