Would you like to learn how to use a group policy to configure automatic updates on Windows? In this tutorial, we will show you how to configure automatic updates on Windows using a GPO.
• Windows 2012 R2
• Windows 2016
• Windows 2019
• Windows 10
• Windows 7
Equipment list
The following section presents the list of equipment used to create this tutorial.
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Tutorial GPO – Disable automatic updates on Windows
On the domain controller, open the group policy management tool.
Create a new group policy.
Enter a name for the new group policy.
In our example, the new GPO was named: MY-GPO.
On the Group Policy Management screen, expand the folder named Group Policy Objects.
Right-click your new Group Policy Object and select the Edit option.
On the group policy editor screen, expand the Computer configuration folder and locate the following item.
Access the option named Windows Update.
Enable the option named Configure automatic updates and perform the following configuration.
• Configure automatic updating – Auto download and schedule the install.
• Scheduled install day – Every day.
• Scheduled install time – 09:00.
Click on the OK button.
Change the download and scheduling settings to suit your needs.
In our example, we configured Windows to download automatically the updates.
In our example, we configured the system to automatically install the updates every day at 9 AM.
To save the group policy configuration, you need to close the Group Policy editor.
Congratulations! You have finished the GPO creation.
Tutorial – Applying the GPO to configure automatic update
On the Group policy management screen, you need to right-click the Organizational Unit desired and select the option to link an existent GPO.
In our example, we are going to link the group policy named MY-GPO to the root of the domain.
After applying the GPO you need to wait for 10 or 20 minutes.
During this time the GPO will be replicated to other domain controllers.
On a remote computer, verify the Windows update settings.
In our example, we enabled the Windows automatic updates on all domain computers using a GPO.