Click the Start menu and type “gpedit.msc” (without quotes) in the search line and press the enter key. This will launch the Local Group Policy Editor. On the left side of Local Group Policy Editor, expand to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components. Then scroll down and select Windows Update. Double click “No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations” option. In the properties window that appears, change the option from “Not Configured” to “Enabled”. Click “OK” and close Local Group Policy Editor.

Here is the Microsoft Explanation of the Group Policy Object

Specifies that to complete a scheduled installation, Automatic Updates will wait for the computer to be restarted by any user who is logged on, instead of causing the computer to restart automatically.

If the status is set to Enabled, Automatic Updates will not restart a computer automatically during a scheduled installation if a user is logged in to the computer. Instead, Automatic Updates will notify the user to restart the computer.

Be aware that the computer needs to be restarted for the updates to take effect.

There is also a switch that lets you modify how often Windows reminds you with a pop up that a restart needs to be performed. The setting is called, ” Re-Prompt for restart with scheduled installations” Set this to enabled and specify say 60 minutes.

Now open command prompt and type “gpupdate /force” like below.

C:\Users\n8dog89>gpupdate /force
Updating Policy…

User Policy update has completed successfully.
Computer Policy update has completed successfully.

Your PC will now NOT restart automatically, but will remind you every 60 minutes to restart. Much better than coming to your PC and its restarting, or you see that it has restarted, so annoying sometimes!

Have a great weekend!

-NS

Check it out Part 1 and Part 2.

Also if you have never checked out Process Explorer, it is considered a replacement for Task Manager the world over. Go here to see what it is all about.

If you havent downloaded IE9 yet, you really should, it functions quite well. Take it for a Test Drive!

-NS

Release Notes

This is a clone of the Image Resizer Powertoy for Windows XP — a PowerToy that allows you to right-click on one or more image files in Windows Explorer to resize them. It was created (by me) to extend support to non-XP and 64-bit versions of Windows (including 2000, Vista & 7).

Version 2.1.1 of the Image Resizer adds some community-contributed features to the tool. This will be the last release of version 2.x. I am currently performing a major overhaul of the tool (see Image Resizer 3).

Download it here.

TCPView is a Windows program that will show you detailed listings of all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system, including the local and remote addresses and state of TCP connections. On Windows Server 2008, Vista, and XP, TCPView also reports the name of the process that owns the endpoint. TCPView provides a more informative and conveniently presented subset of the Netstat program that ships with Windows. The TCPView download includes Tcpvcon, a command-line version with the same functionality.

Download the application here also read about it in greater detail. If you want to check out the whole suite, go here, downloads and details are all  there.

-NS

Mark’s TechEd Talks Available
Mark delivered four top-rated, top-attended sessions at TechEd US 2010 in New Orleans and they, along with all the TechEd sessions, are available for free on-demand viewing. Mark’s are Case of the Unexplained 2010, Pushing the Limits of Windows, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008R2 Kernel Changes, and a talk he co-presented with Mark Minasi, The Secrets of Effective Technical Talks.

RAMMap v1.1
This update to RAMMap, a memory analysis utility for Windows Vista and Windows 7, adds the ability to purge working sets and memory manager paging lists. This can be useful for measuring the memory usage of applications after they’ve started or when specific features are exercised.

AD Explorer v1.4
ADExplorer, an Active Directory editor, now shows all of a directory’s naming contexts and works with Lightweight Directory Services directories.

Check out the site here.

NetRouteView is a GUI alternative to the standard route utility (Route.exe) of Windows operating system. It displays the list of all routes on your current network, including the destination, mask, gateway, interface IP address, metric value, type, protocol, age (in seconds), interface name, and the MAC address.
NetRouteView also allows you to easily add new routes, as well as to remove or modify existing static routes.

Download NetRouteView here.

-NS

A Texas jury ruled March 16 that Microsoft willfully infringed on two VirnetX patents pertaining to the use of secure  communication links between computing  devices. The jury recommended to the U.S. District Court that VirnetX be awarded $105.75 million in damages.

Days later VirnetX filed another lawsuit saying that Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 also infringed on the same patents… this led to the 200 million dollar settlement to basically buy the patents. Oh Microsoft when will you learn to say please?

-NS

Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden “GodMode” feature that lets users access all of the operating system’s control panels from within a single folder.

To enter “GodMode,” one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista, although some are warning that although it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash.

Give it a try its very cool!