If there’s anything more frustrating than your computer spontaneously rebooting because of a fault, it’s when it reboots while you’re working by design. Some system updates require a reboot to take effect. The trouble is, there are times you don’t want to be forced into a reboot – like when you’re working. The Windows 10 Creators Update adds a new feature called Active Hours, which stops Windows 10 from restarting. Here’s how to use it.
- Click or tap the Start button and choose Settings
- Click or tap Update & security and choose Windows Update
- Select Change active hours
- Choose the start time and end time for active hours, and then tap or click Save
I like this feature. While I don’t see as many forced restarts as I used to these days, being able to control what happens with my system like this is a good thing.
Have you spotted any other nifty updates in the Windows 10 Creators Update? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
10 responses to “No More Unexpected Windows Reboots With Active Hours”
That was in the Anniversary Update, it’s been there for a year now. Also, it’s pretty shit, still, cause I want my computer to be on 24/7, I have applications running on there, services, which I want to do thing in the background all the time, when I’m no there, when I’m asleep, when I’m using it. *I* want to say when updates will get installed, not Windows. At the very least, if it did decide to install updates, it could have the courtesy to at least login and re-open any applications it closed.
There has been a feature allowing it to log in after rebooting for a while now. Unfortunately, it doesn’t re-open everything, so it’s kinda dumb if you’re not around. Wake up to find your machine sitting on the desktop with no programs open… but it’s a start at least. Perhaps in the future if we bitch enough they might add a function to resume running programs. Though depending on which ones you’re using, it may not be all that useful (If they require a login that you haven’t saved the details for)
I don’t want automatic login after rebooting, I want Windows Update to login after rebooting. If I shutdown my PC and someone else turns it on, I still want something there to prevent them from logging on as me.
That’s what I mean. In the windows update section (Settings > Update and Security) if you click on Advanced options, there’s a checkbox “Use my sign in info to automatically finish setting up my device after an update”.
It basically signs you in to complete the update after rebooting, and then if you’re away from your machine, it will lock the pc so nobody can access it without entering your password.
Yes, I remember that setting. I do have it set, but it doesn’t appear to be happening for me… I wonder if it’s for the normal Windows Updates, or just the yearly updates they send out…
mmm not sure. might have to do a bit more testing with the next few batches of updates to see. I think so far I’ve been around to manually restart when required. It was only a few months ago I discovered that option. It may have been introduced in the anniversary update?
One trick to use is to go into the Network settings and theres an option to set your connection as “metered”. If you enable this it will not affect your day to day activities, but it will stop windows from downloading any update that is not deemed as security. Youll get the virus updates and critical security updates, the rest will be put on hold until youre on a “non metered” connection, which will then be at your choice when you decide to disable the metered setting.
Old news! Been there pretty much since Windows 10 was released. And it’s crap anyway. Would be better if I could specify blocks of hours not one single start and end time.
Just came in to say the same. Not new feature at all, and it’s shite how your active hours are only allowed to be 8 hour blocks 😐 Should be able to set to any time block you want (so you can force the reboot between like 2-4am or something)
Not a new feature. However, it used to be a maximum of 12 hours and from the screenshot it looks like it is now 18 hours, which is an improvement.