How in the Tech

Prevent the Automatic Installation of Windows Service Packs

By Adam Myers ⋅ May 17, 2008 ⋅ Tags: registry editor, vista sp1, xp sp3

Later this year Microsoft is set to release both XP Service Pack 3 and Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows Update as an Automatic Update. While both service packs are already available at Windows Update, neither are Automatic, merely Recommended. What does this mean? Those of you that have Windows set to automatically download and install updates - generally not a bad idea - will awake one morning to find your Windows installation with a shiny new build number.

In a perfect computing world, the Microsoft service packs contain a roll-up of all the previous updates/patches and minimal new features. Consequently, you should be greeted with little to no problems. Unfortunately, we’ve all come to realize nothing is perfect with computers and Microsoft’s track record speaks for itself.

So, what are your options if you want to install service packs on your schedule? The drastic approach is to just turn off automation of Windows Update in Control Panel. Fortunately, there is another way: via the Registry. Microsoft has provided a registry entry that will delay installations of service packs for a period of 12 months. Standard caveats apply any time you edit the Registry by hand - be careful!

1. Click Start and in the Start Search box type regedit.exe
2. Traverse the Registry Editor navigation tree on the left hand side down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate



3. Right click in the right hand side panel and select New->DWORD Value.
4. Name the string DoNotAllowSP and assign it a value of 1

Now you can have peice of mind that nothing drastic will happen to Windows out of the blue. To revert the grace period merely delete the DoNotAllowSP key or change it’s value to 0.

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