I have Windows 10 Home, normally have many things in progress, and rarely reboot. When Windows does an update and wants to restart, the notification is a very subtle "1" added to the action center icon (which I don't usually notice), and then the next morning it has shut down everything and rebooted. I know that I can't completely control the updates like I could in Windows 7, but I would at least like a clearer announcement, like a popup that stays visible until I close it. I prefer to close my programs myself and reboot on my own terms, rather than Windows doing it to me when I least expect. The question "How to stop Windows 10 from automatic restarts" shows a screenshot of a setting called "Notify to schedule restart", but I can't find such a thing on mine – my Advanced page looks like this:
Update & security -> Update settings -> Advanced options
Thoughts?
NOTE: My question is not a duplicate of How to *disable* automatic reboots in Windows 10? – that question and answer are only for Win10 Pro/Enterprise, not Win10 Home. I am even in communication with the author of that answer via his blog (who is refreshingly thorough with his testing and explanations but doesn't have access to Home), but the registry hack that is suggested there and elsewhere for Home users does not work – I have tested setting the value to 2, 3, and 5. Perhaps it used to work before the Anniversary Update, but…
Best Answer
I'm on Windows 10 Pro, and your description sounds very similar to how I use my computer. The only solution I could find uses Group Policy Editor, which is not available on Home. However, following instructions from this article may let you install it.
Provided that works, following the instructions in this image will do the following: When windows is ready to install updates, it will ask you permission to continue as well as give you a list of updates it's trying to install. You can usually allow it to continue if it's just something like Windows Defender updates, but if you see something like "Windows 10 cumulative..." then if you let it install, it will promptly start trying to restart. So hold off on allowing those until you're ready to restart.