Set Active Hours so updates never restart you mid-work — via Microsoft Learn
Hidden settinglow riskWindows 11Windows 10
Windows won't automatically restart for updates during your active hours. You can set them by hand or let Windows learn them from your activity; admins can also enforce a range by policy.
Takes effect right away
How to do it
- The easy way: Settings → Windows Update → Advanced options → Active hours → set Manually and choose start/end (up to 18 hours).
- By policy (Pro and up): Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Turn off auto-restart for updates during active hours and set the start and end times.
Registry equivalent (policy): underHKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdatesetSetActiveHours=1 andActiveHoursStart/ActiveHoursEndas hours 0–23. Microsoft discourages using the registry for this. Default active hours are 8 AM–5 PM.
Sources
- Manage device restarts after updates — Configure active hours — by Microsoft Learn
- Source reviewed
- 2026-11-02
- Link checked
- 2026-11-02
- Tested hands-on
- Not by Oddbyte.Me
Oddbyte.Me hasn't tried this on every Windows build, so keep the undo handy.