If you are logged on as a Computer Administrator or a member of the Administrators group, you may be prompted from the notification area to configure the Automatic Updates feature in Windows.
For more information about the availability of the Automatic Updates feature and how to configure and use it in Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 306525: How to configure and use Automatic Updates in Windows
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306525)
.
For advanced users or IT Professionals, this article describes the following methods that you can use to configure the Automatic Updates feature:
Right-click Administrative Templates, and
then click Add/Remove Templates.
Click Add, click Wuau.adm in the Windows\Inf folder, and then click
Open.
Click Close.
Under Computer Configuration, expand
Administrative Templates, expand Windows
Components, and then expand Windows Update.
The Configure Automatic Updates policy appears. This policy specifies whether the computer receives security updates and other important downloads through the Windows Automatic Updates feature. By using the settings for this policy, you can specify whether automatic updates are enabled on the computer. If the service is enabled, you must select one of the three configuration options.
To view the policy settings, double-click the
Configure Automatic Updates policy.
To turn on Automatic Updates, click
Enabled in the list of options that appear at the top of the
Setting tab.
If you click Enabled, you must select one of the configuration options that is described in step 10.
Select one of the following options:
2 - Notify for download and notify for
install
When updates are available, an icon appears in the notification area and you receive a message that states that the updates are ready to be downloaded. Click the icon or the message to view and select the updates that you want to download. Windows downloads the updates in the background. When the download is complete, an icon appears in the notification area and you receive a message that states that the updates are ready to be installed. You can click the icon or the message to select the updates that you want to install.
3 - Auto download and notify for
install
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Note This is the default setting.
When updates are available, Windows downloads the updates in the background. The user is not notified or interrupted during this process. When the download is complete, an icon appears in the notification area and you receive a message that states that the updates are ready to be installed. You can click the icon or the message to view and select the updates that you want to install.
4 - Auto download and schedule the
install
To specify the schedule, select the appropriate options in the Group Policy Settings dialog box. If you do not specify a schedule, updates are installed daily at 3:00 A.M by default. Windows restarts the computer automatically if it is necessary. If someone is using the computer when Windows is ready to restart it, a notification appears that states that Windows needs to restart the computer. The user can choose to restart the computer later.
If you select 4 - Auto download and schedule the install, you can set a recurring schedule. If you do not set a schedule, all updates are downloaded and installed every day at 3:00 A.M.
Other Options
Additionally, you can select the Disabled option or the Not Configured option.
If you select Disabled, an administrator must download and install any available updates manually from the Microsoft Windows Update website.
If you select Not Configured, the status of Automatic Updates is not specified at the Group Policy level. The status is either "enabled" or "not enabled." However, an administrator can still configure Automatic Updates by using Control Panel. Control Panel includes the same settings that are available in Group Policy.
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Note An updated Administrative Template (.adm file) is now available
for use with the Automatic Updates feature in Windows Server 2003 and the
Software Update Services (SUS) Service Pack 1 (SP1) client. This updated policy
file adds two new policies:
This policy specifies the time period that Automatic Updates must wait after the computer starts, before it continues with a scheduled installation that was missed previously.
No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations
This policy specifies that Automatic Updates will complete a scheduled installation when any user who is logged on restarts the computer. If this policy is not used, the computer restarts automatically.
The updated client and policy file is included in Windows Server 2003. To download the SUS SP1 client for Windows 2000-based and Windows XP-based computers, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article Description of Windows Server Update Services Service Pack 1
To load policy settings by using Group Policy, you must use the Wuau.adm file that describes the new policy settings for the Automatic Updates client. Wuau.adm is automatically installed in the Windows\Inf folder when you install the new
Automatic Updates feature.
You can load Windows\Inf\Wuau.adm as an administrative template
in Group Policy Object Editor.
To load policy settings by using Group Policy in Active Directory:
On an Active Directory domain controller, click Start, and then click Run.
Type dsa.msc.
Right-click the organizational unit or domain where you
want to create the policy, and then click Properties.
Click the Group Policy tab, and then click
New.
Type a name for the policy, and then click
Edit.
Under Computer Settings, right-click Administrative
Templates.
Click Add/Remove Templates, and then click
Add.
Type the name of the Automatic Updates .adm file, for
example,
type windows_folder\inf\wuau.adm.
Click Open.
Configuring Automatic Updates by editing the registry
Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
1: Keep my computer up to date has been disabled in Automatic Updates.
2: Notify of download and installation.
3: Automatically download and notify of
installation.
4: Automatically download and scheduled
installation.
Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD
Value name: ScheduledInstallDay Value data: 0 to 7
0: Every day.
1 through 7: The days of the week from Sunday (1)
to Saturday (7).
Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD
Value name: ScheduledInstallTime Value data: n, where
n equals the time of day in a 24-hour format
(0-23). Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD
Value name: UseWUServer Value data: Set this value to 1 to configure Automatic
Updates to use a server that is running Software Update Services instead of
Windows Update. Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD
Value name: RescheduleWaitTime Value data: m, where
m equals the time period to wait between the time Automatic Updates starts and the time it begins installations where the scheduled times have passed. The time is set in minutes from 1 to 60, representing 1 minute to 60 minutes) Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD
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Note This setting only affects client behavior after the clients have updated to the SUS SP1 client version or later versions.
Value name: NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers Value data: Reg_DWORD: 0 (false) or 1 (true). If set to 1,
Automatic Updates does not automatically restart a computer while users are
logged on. Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD
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Note This setting affects client behavior after the clients have updated to the SUS SP1 client version or later versions.
When you configure Automatic Updates directly by using the policy registry keys, the policy overrides the preferences that are set by the local administrative user to configure the client. If an administrator removes the registry keys at a later date, the preferences that were set by the local administrative user are used again.
To determine the server that is running SUS that your client computers and servers go to for their updates, add the following f registry values to the registry:
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