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Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations with Windows7 broken RRS feed

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    Hello,

    I've only tried with Windows 7 machines, but I cannot get this to work. It keeps nagging me every 10 min even tho I configured the policy to not do it so often!

    I have tried it with a brand new setup of WSUS on Win 2008R2 and with Win 7 SP1 x64 clients. I am configuring the clients via GPO.

    If i do a reg query on the client it gives this result,

    C:\>reg query hklm\software\policies\microsoft\windows\windowsupdate /s


    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\policies\microsoft\windows\windowsupdate
        WUServer    REG_SZ    http://192.168.2.164:8530/
        WUStatusServer    REG_SZ    http://192.168.2.164:8530/

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\policies\microsoft\windows\windowsupdate\AU
        NoAutoUpdate    REG_DWORD    0x0
        AUOptions    REG_DWORD    0x4
        ScheduledInstallDay    REG_DWORD    0x0
        ScheduledInstallTime    REG_DWORD    0xc
        NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers    REG_DWORD    0x1
        UseWUServer    REG_DWORD    0x1
        RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled    REG_DWORD    0x1
        RebootRelaunchTimeout    REG_DWORD    0x14

    After updates been installed, the reboot now / postpone windows pops up with 10 minutes selected. Not sure if this is correct or if it should say 20 minutes as the policy above is configured with? Anyways, when I click postpone it then comes back after 10 minutes - not 20 minutes.


    Friday, October 26, 2012 1:49 PM

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    Would imagine there to be additional information in this log saying that the group policy is overwriting the clients choice, which there isnt. I still believe it to be broken.

    I also agree the current implementation is "broken".

    The policy settings were based on the behavior of the Windows Update Agent in 2005 (for WinXP/2003).

    The Windows, and Windows Update Agent, teams radically redesigned the behavior of the WUAgent when they created the Control Panel WUApp for Windows Vista. Essentially they ignored the fact that there was this thing called Group Policy that could configure the WUAgent. Of course, they kinda didn't change the registry-based parameters either, so the Group Policy question is secondary.

    They changed a boatload of other things as well -- like exclusive updates are now installed *AFTER* everything else instead of *BEFORE* everything else.

    None of it has, to my knowledge, ever been documented.

    There is, sadly, an apparently lack of accountability in the WUAgent team as regards the impact of their product on the rest of the operating system.

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

    Friday, November 9, 2012 10:58 PM

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    I've only tried with Windows 7 machines, but I cannot get this to work. It keeps nagging me every 10 min even tho I configured the policy to not do it so often!

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\policies\microsoft\windows\windowsupdate\AU
        RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled    REG_DWORD    0x1
        RebootRelaunchTimeout    REG_DWORD    0x14

    After updates been installed, the reboot now / postpone windows pops up with 10 minutes selected. Not sure if this is correct or if it should say 20 minutes as the policy above is configured with?

    20 minutes is not a valid value for Vista and later systems. The available valid options for Vista and later are:

    • 10 minutes
    • 1 hour
    • 4 hours

    These three values are hardcoded into the WU interface for Vista and  later systems. If you configure values of 10 mins (0xa), 60 mins (0x3c), or 240 mins (0xf0), the UI will honor those settings. If you configure any other value, the dialog default to 10 minutes (the internal hard-coded default value of the WUAgent), as you've observed.

    Prior to Vista, for Win2003 and WinXP, you can configure any value from 1 to 24 hours (1440 minutes), in increments of 1 minute, and the WUAgent on XP/2003 will present the generic reboot notification dialog at that interval.

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

    Friday, October 26, 2012 10:01 PM
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    I've only tried with Windows 7 machines, but I cannot get this to work. It keeps nagging me every 10 min even tho I configured the policy to not do it so often!

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\policies\microsoft\windows\windowsupdate\AU
        RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled    REG_DWORD    0x1
        RebootRelaunchTimeout    REG_DWORD    0x14

    After updates been installed, the reboot now / postpone windows pops up with 10 minutes selected. Not sure if this is correct or if it should say 20 minutes as the policy above is configured with?

    20 minutes is not a valid value for Vista and later systems. The available valid options for Vista and later are:

    • 10 minutes
    • 1 hour
    • 4 hours

    These three values are hardcoded into the WU interface for Vista and  later systems. If you configure values of 10 mins (0xa), 60 mins (0x3c), or 240 mins (0xf0), the UI will honor those settings. If you configure any other value, the dialog default to 10 minutes (the internal hard-coded default value of the WUAgent), as you've observed.

    Prior to Vista, for Win2003 and WinXP, you can configure any value from 1 to 24 hours (1440 minutes), in increments of 1 minute, and the WUAgent on XP/2003 will present the generic reboot notification dialog at that interval.

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

    Thank you for your answer.

    What you say makes sense. I've adjusted the value in the GPO and made a test, but sadly it still prompts with 10 minutes as default value. Any other ideas?

    C:\>reg query hklm\software\policies\microsoft\windows\windowsupdate /s

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\policies\microsoft\windows\windowsupdate
        WUServer    REG_SZ    http://192.168.2.164:8530/
        WUStatusServer    REG_SZ    http://192.168.2.164:8530/

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\policies\microsoft\windows\windowsupdate\AU
        NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers    REG_DWORD    0x1
        UseWUServer    REG_DWORD    0x1
        RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled    REG_DWORD    0x1
        RebootRelaunchTimeout    REG_DWORD    0xf0
        NoAutoUpdate    REG_DWORD    0x0
        AUOptions    REG_DWORD    0x4
        ScheduledInstallDay    REG_DWORD    0x0
        ScheduledInstallTime    REG_DWORD    0xa

    Monday, October 29, 2012 9:27 AM
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    I've adjusted the value in the GPO and made a test, but sadly it still prompts with 10 minutes as default value. Any other ideas?

    Yes, one other possibility. The policy setting, in fact, only applies to scheduled installations. In this case it would be the installation event that occurs at 10am, and only if a user is logged on at that time.

    Now, because it is a 10am event, it may be that this actually is the scheduled installation event, and then I don't have a really good answer. If it wasn't the 10am event, then that would likely be the reason why.

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

    Tuesday, October 30, 2012 12:29 AM
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    I adjusted the GPO to make the scheduled installation at the a fiting time. I then left the computer logged on and waited until 10am and saw the scheduled installation running, then the 10 minutes prompt showed.

    I just now installed a fresh Windows 7 x86 and had it install updates thru WSUS with a scheduled installation (Both the x86 and the x64 running installations side by side), and it also prompts with 10 minutes even tho its configured with 4 hours.

    I've made sure to reboot the computers after the gpupdate to make sure the update service uses the new values. I am logged on with administrator accounts, but this should not matter?

    If anyone else have any ideas it would be very much appreciated.

    Tuesday, October 30, 2012 8:35 AM
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    Hi again,

    I just installed a new Win 7 Pro SP1 x86 machine.

    I went into gpedit.msc

    Navigated to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update. I then did the following:

    1. "Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations" to enable and 240 min

    2. "No auto-restart with loggd on users for scheduled automatic updates installations" to enabled

    3. "Configure Automatic Updates" to enabled with option 4 plus the nearest hour for scheduled installation.

    Then i rebooted the machine, and then verified in regedit that the values exists that I just edited in gpedit.msc.

    Then I let the machine idle and had the scheduled installation kick in which then followed by the good old friendly 10 min prompt.

    Clearly looks like a bug. I would be happy if someone could verify and hopefully report it to the appropriate people so this can get fixed.


    • Edited by frefal Tuesday, November 6, 2012 3:03 PM
    Tuesday, November 6, 2012 12:44 PM
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    I just now installed a fresh Windows 7 x86 and had it install updates thru WSUS with a scheduled installation (Both the x86 and the x64 running installations side by side), and it also prompts with 10 minutes even tho its configured with 4 hours.

    Let me clarify something else, that you've now made me realize... The dialog will always display "10 minutes" as the default value. This is the behavior of the dialog, and has nothing at all to do with the policy configuration of the WUAgent.

    The difference is whether the WUAgent will ignore or use the value set by the end-user. I've still not worked out all of the various permutations and combinations of the thing, but I have observed previously that if the RebootRelaunchTimeout policy is not enabled, then the WUAgent will ignore the "1 hour" and "4 hours" options, even if selected by the end-user.

    If the RebootRelaunchTimeout policy is enabled (and it may also be that the value of RebootRelaunchTimeout doesn't even matter), then it is possible to delay longer. (I'm able to delay "4 hours" on my personal system; but I'm not exactly sure why; RebootRelaunchTimeout is actually set to 30 minutes.)

    And, to add insult to injury, the Windows Update Agent team has never found it in their interests to actually document this stuff. (Maybe it's buried in the Vista OS documentation somewhere. <??>)

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

    Wednesday, November 7, 2012 5:11 PM
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    Hi!

    Very confusing design indeed.

    My fresh Win 7 machine still prompt me according to the time i pick in the dropdown box. Regardless of what the GP is set to.

    WindowsUpdate.log says;

    "AU got client choice 'Reboot later' in 10 mins for sessionId 0x1"

    Would imagine there to be additional information in this log saying that the group policy is overwriting the clients choice, which there isnt. I still believe it to be broken.

    Thursday, November 8, 2012 7:33 AM
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    Would imagine there to be additional information in this log saying that the group policy is overwriting the clients choice, which there isnt. I still believe it to be broken.

    I also agree the current implementation is "broken".

    The policy settings were based on the behavior of the Windows Update Agent in 2005 (for WinXP/2003).

    The Windows, and Windows Update Agent, teams radically redesigned the behavior of the WUAgent when they created the Control Panel WUApp for Windows Vista. Essentially they ignored the fact that there was this thing called Group Policy that could configure the WUAgent. Of course, they kinda didn't change the registry-based parameters either, so the Group Policy question is secondary.

    They changed a boatload of other things as well -- like exclusive updates are now installed *AFTER* everything else instead of *BEFORE* everything else.

    None of it has, to my knowledge, ever been documented.

    There is, sadly, an apparently lack of accountability in the WUAgent team as regards the impact of their product on the rest of the operating system.

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

    Friday, November 9, 2012 10:58 PM