Member Avatar for jezza70

Hi all,
I have an XP Pro machine that always prompts to restart (after just starting up). It says it is to install new updates, problem being that it just continues to cycle through this, even if I restart as prompted.
Windows updates says the machine is up to date. I have been into the administrative tools and tried enabling, "do not prompt for reboot after updates have been downloaded: (or words to that effect)...but the problems persists. I have done a regcure, the machine is protected by networked antivirus and firewall. No other workstations are experiencing this problem.
Any ideas??

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rch1231

Dani AI

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Brief, practical checklist for (and anyone else who finds this thread later). The persistent “restart required” prompt on boot usually comes from a marker left behind by an installer or Windows Update, or from a startup task that keeps re-queuing a reboot. Before changing anything, create a system restore point and export any registry keys you plan to edit.

Look for the common registry markers that tell Windows a reboot is needed: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired and HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations. Export those keys, then remove them only if you are sure installs have finished. If the live registry is locked, as hinted, use the Recovery Console or bootable repair media to edit the offline hive.

Reset the Windows Update cache (safe, often effective). Stop the update service, rename the SoftwareDistribution folder, then start the service again:

net stop wuauserv
rename %windir%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
net start wuauserv

After that, inspect C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log and Event Viewer (System/Application) for entries mentioning update, installer, or reboot requests around startup time.

Also check startup/run entries and RunOnce/RunOnceEx values, Scheduled Tasks, and third-party autostart tools (Autoruns or msconfig) to isolate something that issues a reboot at logon. Create a new local administrator account and test there to see if it’s per-user. If system files look suspect, run sfc /scannow from an elevated prompt (XP may require the install CD). Take care when editing the registry: back up first and only remove keys after confirming what created them.

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Member Avatar for rch1231

Didi you try the <F8> when booting and go back to last known good configuration?

Member Avatar for jezza70

Didi you try the <F8> when booting and go back to last known good configuration?

Thanks rch1231 for the advice. Yes I have already tried this. The problem is the OS thinks it needs to continually restart to install updates. The OS is working fine, it just keeps prompting to reboot (on startup only).
This is more of an annoyance than anything, I have never come across this before.
Anyone else got any ideas????

Member Avatar for rch1231

I had a feeling you had tried it but had to ask. The only other thing I can think of is something in the boot.ini. Do you have anything like Ultimate boot disk for windows or L-softs Active boot that you could boot from and check the ini files and registry?

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