Automatic workstation reboots are not always good

It happened to me again: when I snap my monitor on in the morning, I don't see my desktop, but instead I see a Windows XP login screen.

No, my computer didn't reboot because it crashed, or because the lights went out. Instead, it rebooted because Windows Automatic Updates (WU) installed security patches that required a reboot.

Now, security is important, I certainly sign that, but I have when tons of applications open, inclusing VMware with a virtual machine or two powered on, I really don't want my machine to reboot without my consent.

Yes, I could install Windows Server 2003 to my workstation, but I guess that would be just overkill with today's virtualization technologies. So, the best option left is to tinker with Windows Update's settings.

Tim Rain has written a helpful blog entry how to do just what I wanted. Since I don't want to change the settings of Automatic Updates but I just want to disable the automatic reboots, this is the link I want to share.

Proceed with caution, though. You have been warned.