My Windows 10 PC automatically updates and automatically reboots. I’m generally fine with the former behavior, the latter can be a bit frustrating at times. Suspending updates and doing them on my schedule feels clumsy. Not to mention the fact that Windows doesn’t consider running PuTTY sessions worth preventing a reboot. I guess that’s a plug for more tmux and/or screen usage, though. Nevertheless, I wish Microsoft would yield more control over this update system to power users.

I use BitLocker and must manually unlock the system during a reboot. Normally, this is fine; however, when an automatic reboot inconveniently occurs, it’ll boot loop the system because I’m not there to enter the passphrase. The Windows UEFI system automatically reboots the system after a minute. And again, and again, and again… Sometimes it gets itself in such a loop that Startup Recovery is needed.

I finally found an answer to this annoying problem. In Boot Configuration Data (BCD), there’s a value, “bootshutdowndisabled,” that can prevent this automatic reboot. Now the system will wait into perpetuity for me to unlock it. A far sight better than a constant reboot. I’m sure the fans and power supply are a might happier too. I figured I’d share this, since I’m probably not the only one annoyed by it on a modern system they want to (better) secure.

In an administrator command prompt:
bcdedit /set bootshutdowndisabled 1

Your system will thank you later 🙂