How to Set Windows 10 Active Hours So It Won’t Restart By Itself

Windows 10 automatically downloads and installs updates, but a new feature in Windows 10’s Anniversary Update gives you more control over when this happens. Set “active hours” when you generally use your PC, and Windows won’t restart your computer during those hours.

This feature is a little limited, but you can set 12 of the 24 hours each day as “off limits” and prevent automatic restarts during those hours. Windows still won’t restart your computer while you’re actively using it, even outside of active hours.

You’ll find this setting in Windows 10’s Settings application. To launch it, open the Start menu and then click or tap “Settings.”

Head to Update & Security > Windows Update. Click or tap “Change Active Hours” under Update Settings.

Choose a “Start time” and “End time” here. By default, the “active hours” are set from 8 AM to 5 PM.

You should set the hours during which you generally use your computer. For example, if this is a home PC you only use during the evening, you may want to set your “active hours” from 5 PM to 12 AM. Windows won’t automatically install updates and restart during those hours.

Note that your active hours must be between 1 and 12 hours. You can’t go above 12 hours. You also can’t set different active hours on different days, so you can’t specify different active hours for weekdays and weekends.

How to Override Your Active Hours

You can temporarily override active hours by heading to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Restart Options. From here, you can set a custom restart time when your device will restart to install updates. This is a one time setting, and you can only set a custom restart time if your device needs to restart to install updates.

If Windows needs to restart, you’ll also see a “Restart Now” button on the Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update screen. Use the button to restart immediately and get that restart out of the way so it doesn’t surprise you later.