dealing with windows 10 update and restart/shutdown

[robertawright]

I'm running Blue Iris on windows 10, and the relentless updating either restarts my machine almost daily, or simply causes the machine to shutdown. Either way Blue Iris gets shut down, so my security system is offline.

I've tried setting the in-use hours for windows update, but that just gets ignored (or windows 10 doesn't think Blue Iris constitutes a usage). Seems my computer shuts down at about 1AM most times, so my security system is frequently offline over night.

Is there anything to convince Windows 10 to not shutdown my vital security system? I'd be happy to do the restart during the day when prompted, but I can't see how to get windows to do that. Does everyone who needs a system running 24/7 run something other than windows 10?

[HeneryH]

So many things to unwrap here...

You get update restarts almost daily??? Wow, I am not even close to that on my machine.

And why don't you just uncheck the option to have Windows restart when needed? I have that setting OFF on my machine so I am always prompted/alerted when a restart is required.

Windows should never shutdown your computer as part of an update. It might restart your computer though if you allow it via settings.

And if you have BI set to run as a service then BI would restart automatically on reboot.

[SolarEclipse]

My Win 10 system is Bitlockered and doesn't have a TPM so I have to be there when it reboots otherwise it shuts down without a password entered in a certain amount of time.
For me I put my updates on Pause and on the weekend I do the updates manually, then put the system back in Pause. I've not had any unexpected updates since I've been doing that.

[robertawright]

I have been getting updates more frequently than usual of late, just after replacing my security computer with a new one. Not quite daily, but several times in the last two weeks.

Both of the laptop computers I've used for security purposes will usually just shutdown and not restart when windows 10 updates. This could be a BIOS or other setting somewhere that I could change, but I really don't want the update happening at all unless I approve it, since it involves the system being down for some period of time.

Windows 10 is set to prompt me before updating, but if you don't respond to schedule the update in some amount of time, it will go ahead and update without permission. It also ignores the option to not update during usage hours, because it does not consider a running app like Blue Iris to constitute usage. Seems to shutdown at around 1AM each time, even though I set the permitted restart times to just 6 hours during the day.

I've found several possible approaches to solving this problem on the internet, such as registry hacks or services settings to disable windows update entirely. I don't want to do that, I just want to control when the updates happen.

Blue Iris support has suggested I use the "run as a service" option, but this won't help if I get shutdowns.

My workaround for now is as follows: I have the security cameras and computer using a separate wifi network (separate access point) that I can disconnect from the internet by unplugging the wan cable. I'm running it like this for now, but will reconnect periodically to allow updates to Windows and Blue Iris, or for any other temporary need.

[tombone]

While I unfortunately cannot help with your problem, I totally agree that the way Microsoft has implemented updating in Windows 10 is a complete nightmare.
You would not believe that a company with such immense financial ressources and skilled engeneers would even consider such a crappy implementation.
My only recommendation could be to turn off Windows Update completely and do it manually when it is comfortable.

[davidf]

My workaround for now is as follows: I have the security cameras and computer using a separate wifi network (separate access point) that I can disconnect from the internet by unplugging the wan cable. I'm running it like this for now, but will reconnect periodically to allow updates to Windows and Blue Iris, or for any other temporary need.

This is what I do as well.

I didn't want to worry about registry hacks and I wanted machine to be as un-customized as possible. This way if I ever have trouble and need to re-image, I can have a brand new install and be back online in a short time(no re-images so far yet, figures crossed!).

I have a hardware firewall between me and the internet. I created a separate network/VLAN for BI and the cameras. The camera VLAN is isolated from everything, except I allow NTP, SMB and FTP into the another(servers and NAS's located here) network for time, file share and BI backup. I allow port 81 access into camera LAN from the network containing laptop, desktops to view BI app.

Since I don't use email/text alerts or anything, the BI machine doesn't need to talk to internet. Since the BI machine can't talk to the internet, it doesn't know about the windows updates.

I do occasionally enable access to the internet to upgrade BI to current version and take windows updates then disable the internet access again.

Another thing to look at would be BIOS version.
I had a little trouble w/the used Win10 I7 machine I bought on amazon for the new BI V5 server. It would crash w/BSD about every 2 days. I looked at BIOS version and it was dated 2012 and the machine originally shipped w/WIN 7 according to HP website. I updated w/the latest firmware which was dated 2018 and haven't had any trouble since, suggesting BIOS version was too old.

[MrGlasspoole]

Windows should never shutdown your computer as part of an update. It might restart your computer though if you allow it via settings.

But that is what Windows 10 does.
The web is full of people complaining about it and hacks (registry/services/file renaming).

I fell asleep, work was not saved and everything was gone.
It happened to me two times.
The web is full of people who lost there work (for example rendering or online surveys).

There are also the cases where people needed the PC for example in a presentation.
But because of forced updates they had to wait an hour when booting the machine.

And why don't you just uncheck the option to have Windows restart when needed? I have that setting OFF on my machine so I am always prompted/alerted when a restart is required.

Where is that setting that nobody knows?

[HeneryH]

Win-10 Home or Pro?

[pelermon]

Windows should never shutdown your computer as part of an update. It might restart your computer though if you allow it via settings.

But that is what Windows 10 does.
The web is full of people complaining about it and hacks (registry/services/file renaming).

I fell asleep, work was not saved and everything was gone.
It happened to me two times.
The web is full of people who lost there work (for example rendering or online surveys).

There are also the cases where people needed the PC for example in a presentation.
But because of forced updates they had to wait an hour when booting the machine.

And why don't you just uncheck the option to have Windows restart when needed? I have that setting OFF on my machine so I am always prompted/alerted when a restart is required.

Where is that setting that nobody knows?

How to disable Automatic Restart on System Failure in Windows 10
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable- ... re-windows

[TimG]

Where is that setting that nobody knows?

Nice one HeneryH. Win10 Pro has it, but not Win10 Home. Search for "win10 prevent reboot after update" and look for the solution with gpedit.msc

Sorted