how to configure automatic updates by using group policy or registry settings

8/8/2019 How to Configure Automatic Updates by Using Group Policy or Registry Settings

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How to configure automatic updates by using

Group Policy or registry settings

View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q328010

On This Page

• INTRODUCTION

• MORE INFORMATION

o Configuring Automatic Updates by using local Group Policy

o Loading policy settings by using Group Policy in Active Directory directory services

o Configuring Automatic Updates by editing the registry

Expand all | Collapse all

INTRODUCTION

If you are logged on as a Computer Administrator or a member of

the Administrat...

If you are logged on as a Computer Administrator or a member of the Administrators group, you may be

prompted from the notification area of the taskbar to configure the Automatic Updates feature in Windows.

For additional information about the availability of the Automatic Updates feature and how to configure and

use it, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

306525 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306525/ ) How to configure and use Automatic Updates in

Windows XP

327850 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327850/ ) How to configure and use Automatic Updates in

Windows 2000

If you are an advanced user or an IT Professional, you can use either of the following methods to configure

Automatic Updates:

• Use Group Policy or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 System Policy

• Modify the registry

This article describes how to use either of these methods to configure the Automatic Updates feature.Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

Configuring Automatic Updates by using local Group Policy Click

Start, and then...

Configuring Automatic Updates by using local Group Policy

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. Type gpedit.msc, and then click OK .

3. Expand Computer Configuration.

4. Right-click Administrative Templates, and then click Add/Remove Templates.

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5. Click Add, click Wuau.adm in the Windows\Inf folder, and then click Open.

6. Click Close.

7. 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. The settings for this policy let you specify if automatic updates are enabled on the computer.

If the service is enabled, you must select one of the three configuration options.8. To view the policy settings, double-click the Configure Automatic Updates policy.

9. 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 three configuration options that are listed in step 10.

10. Select one of the following three options:

o 2 - Notify for download and notify for install

When Windows finds updates that apply to this computer, an icon appears in the notification

area, and a message appears that states that the updates are ready to be downloaded. If you

click either the icon or the message, the option that you use to select the updates you want todownload appears. Windows downloads the selected updates in the background. When the

download is complete, the icon appears in the notification area again, and a message appears

that states that the updates are ready to be installed. If you click either the icon or the

message, the option that you use to select the updates you want to install appears.

o 3 - Auto download and notify for install

Note This setting is the default setting.

Windows finds updates that apply to your computer, and then downloads these updates in the

background.The user is not notified or interrupted during this process. When the download is

complete, the icon appears in the notification area, and a message that states that the updatesare ready to be installed appears. If you click either the icon or the message, the option that

you use to select the updates you want to install appears.

o 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, the default schedule for all installations is used. This

schedule is every day at 3:00 A.M. If any one of the updates require you to restart the

computer to complete the installation, Windows restarts the computer automatically. (If a

user is logged on to the computer when Windows is ready to restart it, the user is notified that

Windows will restart. The user can chose to delay the restart operation.)

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.

o Other Options

Additionally, you can select either 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 Web site.

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 canstill configure Automatic Updates by using Control Panel. Control Panel includes the same

settings that are available in Group Policy.



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:

• Reschedule Automatic Updates scheduled installations

This policy specifies the time that Automatic Updates has to wait after the computer starts, before it

proceeds with a scheduled installation that was missed previously.

•

No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations

This policy specifies that Automatic Updates will wait for the computer to be restarted by any user

who is logged on to complete a scheduled installation. 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, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=799432fb-c196-4f01-8cce-

4f9ea58d6177&DisplayLang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=799432fb-

c196-4f01-8cce-4f9ea58d6177&DisplayLang=en)

To download the updated Administrative Template for Windows 2000-based and Windows XP-basedcomputers, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D26A0AEA-D274-42E6-8025-

8C667B4C94E9&displaylang=en (http://microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D26A0AEA-

D274-42E6-8025-8C667B4C94E9&displaylang=en)

Back to the top

Loading policy settings by using Group Policy in Active Directory directory services

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:

1. On an Active Directory domain controller, click Start, and then click Run.

2. Type dsa.msc.

3. Right-click the organizational unit or domain where you want to create the policy, and then click

Properties.

4. Click the Group Policy tab, and then click New.5. Type a name for the policy, and then click Edit.

6. Under Computer Settings, right-click Administrative Templates.

7. Click Add/Remove Templates, and then click Add.

8. Type the name of the Automatic Updates .adm file, for example, type windows_folder \inf\wuau.adm.

9. Click Open.

Back to the top

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:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=799432fb-c196-4f01-8cce-4f9ea58d6177&DisplayLang=en


http://microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D26A0AEA-D274-42E6-8025-8C667B4C94E9&displaylang=en












322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ ) How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

In a non-Active Directory environment, you can edit registry settings to configure Automatic Updates.

Note You must manually create these registry keys.

You can use either of the following methods to set these registry keys:

• Manually edit the registry by using Registry Editor (regedit.exe).

• Centrally deploy these registry keys by using the Windows NT 4.0-style System Policy functionality.

To use Registry Editor, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, and then type regedit in the Open box.

2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:

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

3. Add any one of the following settings:o Value name: NoAutoUpdate

Value data: 0 or 1

0: Automatic Updates is enabled (default).

1: Automatic Updates is disabled.

Registry Value Type: Reg_DWORD

o Value name: AUOptions

Value data: 1 to 4

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.


o 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).


o Value name: ScheduledInstallTime

Value data: n, where n equals the time of day in a 24-hour format (0-23).


o 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.


o Value name: RescheduleWaitTime

Value data: m, where m equals the time to wait between the time Automatic Updates startsand 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)






Note This setting only affects client behavior after the clients have updated to the SUS SP1

client version or later.

o 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.


Note This setting affects client behavior after the clients have updated to the SUS SP1 client

version or later.

To use Automatic Updates with a server that is running Software Update Services, see the Software

Update Services Deployment white paper. To view this white paper, visit the following Microsoft

Web site:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wsus/bb466200.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/wsus/bb466200.aspx)

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:

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

Value name: WUServer

Registry Value Type: Reg_SZ

This value sets the SUS server by HTTP name (for example, http://IntranetSUS).

Value name: WUStatusServer

Registry Value Type: Reg_SZThis value sets the SUS statistics server by HTTP name (for example, http://IntranetSUS).

Registry Value

Back to the top

Note This is a "FAST PUBLISH" article created directly from within the Microsoft support organization.

The information contained herein is provided as-is in response to emerging issues. As a result of the speed in

making it available, the materials may include typographical errors and may be revised at any time without

notice. See Terms of Use (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=151500) for other considerations.

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