Preventing Reboots in Windows 10 for Long-Term Tests

[JohnJoyceFlusso]

Hi folks

My first post here in a new role ...

I have some test systems that need to acquire data for 1000hrs continuously (semicon folks will understand HTOL!).

Data is shipped out to a MySQL database on AWS as it's generated, so that we can see what's going on remotely as it runs if necessary.

Somebody showed me the wonders of 'gpedit.msc' and how to use 'No auto-restart with logged-on users for scheduled automatic updates installations' and all was good for quite a while.

Except ... this morning I've come in to find a reboot has occurred due to the latest monthly update. Latest Windows build (21H1).

Reading around a bit, there's a hack to rename the files 'Reboot-AC' and 'Reboot-Battery' but trying to rename those (even if I open a command window as administrator) tells me I don't have permission. Attempting to do it in an Explorer window gets to a dead-end where I can't give myself permission to even view the folder

%windir%\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator

I figure that I can't be the only one running things for an extended time and needing to prevent reboots in the meantime. It really shouldn't be difficult, but I don't know where else to go?

Perhaps the correct approach is to re-engineer it with a LabVIEW RT target running the show and WIndows just as a user interface that can reboot as it wants, but that's a load of work that I don't have resources to do right now.

thanks
John

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@JohnJoyceFlusso wrote:

Perhaps the correct approach is to re-engineer it with a LabVIEW RT target running the show and WIndows just as a user interface that can reboot as it wants, but that's a load of work that I don't have resources to do right now.

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Why not normal Linux? That should run most of the Windows LabVIEW code. The MySQL library might need special care, but it won't be as bad as converting to RT.

Windows IoT won't require any code changes, but it will need investment (both time and money). I think you'd still get high risk security updates, but in general the experience will be much better.  

[JohnJoyceFlusso]

Not Linux mainly because there is nobody in our small company with much Linux experience, and no IT support to provide. Doubtless I could figure out how to get something up and running, given some time, but it's time I haven't got.

There's also the 'can of worms' problem - one that comes to mind is that I'm using an inhouse DLL to connect to MySQL because I only need very limited functionality (INSERT and UPDATE), and somebody knocked up a bit of C# for that (but has now left!). I did try the NI SQL library ~10 years ago, and didn't find it added much to just generating the queries myself.

If I was starting from scratch, maybe I'd look at it, but I've got a system that has worked reliably for a while - apart from this one annoyance, which really should be straightforward to deal with ?

[wiebe@CARYA]

Another option is a cRIO running Windows Embedded Standard (WES).

I have 0 experience with those, but I'd assume they won't restart for updates.

I don't see any option that isn't either a big time investment or a big financial investment.

Windows keeps getting worse for the thinks we're doing.

[RTSLVU]

Simplest solution is not to connect your long term test computer to the internet. 

If they can't get the updates they never have to reboot to update.

Yeah I know, you said you were exporting to AWS so you might have to rethink that...

[Frozen · Accepted solution]

Have you tried following this yet? Although it is seems to be trying to prevent windows from waking up, step #2 talks about rebooting.

https://superuser.com/questions/973009/conclusively-stop-wake-timers-from-waking-windows-10-desktop/...

[DerrickB]

The test machine could still be isolated from the general internet but have the AWS / sql stuff routed through.

[JohnJoyceFlusso]

Aha! Well, thanks that's very useful. Although I'd found 'Reboot' and 'Reboot-AC' I hadn't managed to persuade Windows to let me rename them to stop it doing its naughty tricks. Making myself the owner has facilitated the rename, so that might do the job. We'll find out in a few weeks when the next batch of updates descends.

Regarding the other suggestions - perhaps there are ways of letting the test machines write out to AWS, accept incoming 'Remote Viewer' connections, and filter out Windows updates - that could be a backup option. It's just frustrating that an option that should do what's needed, doesn't.

Let's see if I can reply now - apparently I can only post twice in the first 24 hours. As well as the infernal recaptcha thing!

[Eric1977]

I thought Windows 10 gave you the option to download the updates but not load them or to notify the user that there were updates pending. This would require the PC to have human interaction for updates. Is that not the case anymore?

[JohnJoyceFlusso]

I've set the group policy to disable auto restart with logged-on users, which used to work, but it's been ignored on several machines for the latest monthly updates. Hence the question about more fundamental tactics - renaming 'reboot-AC' will hopefully do the trick - we shall see in a month or so!