We can disable Windows automatic updates from command line using the below command.
HKEYLOCALMACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall After you click the Uninstall registry key, click Export Registry File on the Registry menu. In the Export Registry File dialog box, click Desktop in the Save in box, type uninstall in the File name box, and then click Save. We can disable Windows automatic updates from command line using the below command. Reg add 'HKEYLOCALMACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdateAuto Update' /v AUOptions /t REGDWORD /d 1 /f. I tested this on Windows XP, Windows server 2003 and Windows 7 and it works perfectly. HKEYLOCALMACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWS NTCurrentVersionProfileListDefault HKEYLOCALMACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWS NTCurrentVersionProfileListPublic. On Windows 7 (and probably other versions) the procedure does only affect accounts created after changing the ProfilesDirectory setting. For all other accounts the location of.
I tested this on Windows XP, Windows server 2003 and Windows 7 and it works perfectly. After running the above command you can also see a balloon popping up near the system tray with the message “Your computer might be at risk… Automatic updates is turned off……“.
Note that this will not work if domain group policy is enforced and users are prohibited to change the settings. In Widows 7, we can find out if a GP is enforced or not by opening windows update window. Go to settings and see if the options are greyed out for ‘Important updates’. If so, then it’s controlled by administrator/domain policy and can’t be edited. In XP, same can be checked on ‘Automatic updates’ tab in Computer properties(sysdm.cpl).
To enable automatic updates we need to set the registry value to 0. Command is given below.
If you want to download updates but not install till the user acts on it then you can set the registy value to 3.
If you want to disable Automatic updates service then run the below command.
IF you want to stop Automatic updates service then run the below command.
Command for starting automatic updates service:
Command for enabling the service:
Errors
In Vista/Windows 7, the above commands should be run from elevated administrator command prompt. Otherwise you would get the following error.
Related Posts:
Enabling/disabling automatic updates in Windows: Q & A
Autologon[edit]
In the case of a Windows family with one (admin) user and no password, his desktop may open automatically after the boot: that's the autologon system.
To set it on the other configurations (eg: Windows professional), just execute a .reg file with the following keys:
Beware: the password will become readable (in Regedit) by anyone who touches the machine.
Hkey_local_machine Software Microsoft Windows Currentversion Policies Explorer
Changing program installation directories[edit]
With Cygwin you can list the registry entries concerning installation directories with one of these commands:
regtool list -v /HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Wow6432Node/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion | grep Program
Hkey_local_machine Software Microsoft Windows Nt Currentversion Winlogon Shell
or
regtool list -v /HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion | grep Program
The output should be someting like:
Changing the user home directory[edit]
The registry key that has to be changed is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWS NTCurrentVersionProfileListProfilesDirectory
The default value is %SystemDrive%Users and can be changed to a specific path (without %SystemDrive%), like for instance U:usrunixcygwinhome.
To move the remaining content of C:users you have to open 'Start -> Control Panel -> Folder Options' and select the 'Show Hidden files, folders, and drives' option in the 'View' tab. This will make a 'default' subdirectory visible in the C:users directory. Now most of the content of C:users can be copied to the new destination (but not all the files of the active user).
Hkey_local_machine Software Microsoft Windows Nt Currentversion Winlogon
For the 'default' and 'public' subdirectories the following keys need to be set to point to the new location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWS NTCurrentVersionProfileListDefaultHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWS NTCurrentVersionProfileListPublic
On Windows 7 (and probably other versions) the procedure does only affect accounts created after changing the ProfilesDirectory setting. For all other accounts the location of the Desktop, Documents and other standardized directories have to be changed manually, which is, of course, also possible without changing the registry.These locations are: Contacts, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Music, Pictures, Saved Games, Searches, Videos and Virtual Machines.
For accounts created earlier one should also use %windir%system32compmgmt.msc (Computer Management) to change the location of the home folder local path under the 'Profile' tab. This will, however, not automatically change the location of Desktop, Documents and other standardized directories.