Disabling reboot after automatic updates

Personally i hate it when windows forces the issue that a reboot is required after an update has been installed. Sure, if a reboot is needed I'm happy to oblige, but in my own time. If I'm busy working on a system, or it's downloading a large file for me, I don't want windows popping up a dialog box every 10 minutes reminding me to restart, or worse, deciding to restart for me if I've left the computer downloading stuff.

Thankfully, there is a way to fix this. After searching online, I found several solutions, however they all seem to apply only to XP Professional. Here's two methods that work for XP Pro :

One option is by making changes to group policy. At the run prompt type gpedit.msc and then navigate to : local computer policy > computer configuration > administrative templates > windows components > windows update. There's two settings you can change here - either enable "no auto-restart for scheduled automatic updates installations" or adjust the setting for "Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations" and make the delay much much longer (the default is every 10 minutes - I've set mine to once a day).
(thanks to http://www.codinghorror.com for this tip)

The other choice is a registry edit. open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
Then add a DWORD value "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers" and set the value to 1 to enable it.
(from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328010)

But if you're on XP home (as my laptop is) then neither of these choices work. Thankfully, there's a registry hack similar to the one from the microsoft KB article which works just fine :

Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\

Then add a DWORD value "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers" and set the value to 1 to enable it.

As usual, any registry editing is done at your own risk, and if you trash your OS it's your own fault. If you're not sure, don't do it.