How to disable Automatic Windows Update on Windows 2016 server using SCONFIG

You must be wondering to see there is no option in the control panel list to change the Automatic Update settings under the Windows 2016 Server. Hopefully, Microsoft purposely made it to keep the regular windows update to ensure the security and reliability. It is highly recommended to keep the automatic settings. Although in few cases you may want to disable it.

If your problem is only the automatic restart then you could try to adjust the settings through business hours and still allow going for automatic update. Or else you can just disable the “Reboot” task in the “UpdateOrchestrator” folder in scheduled tasks. To avoid windows re-enable it, go to C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator and remove all read/write permissions for the task.

As I said in few cases (especially in production servers) you may want to disable it and do manual updates on your preferred occasion. So let’s do it using SCONFIG.

Open the command prompt with Admin permissions.

Type sconfig and press Enter.

The command inspects your system configuration and produces the below result

Note the point number 5 which shows the current settings. In my case, it is ‘manual’ as I have set it already.

Now type number 5 and press enter.

Now you can type D or M based on your preference. In my case I entered M.

Then press Enter.

Now you see the below window confirming your settings have been save.

That’s it, you are done!!

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