How to schedule a shutdown after finishing Windows updates without having to use command-line?

Question

This is pretty much a repeat of the question from social.technet.microsoft.com:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/31679156-ca8c-4cda-8965-b860267b7496/auto-shutdown-pc-after-windows-updates-completes?forum=itprovistasetup

After a quick Google search, the above link is the only link I could find which was directly related to what I am looking for. But on that page the discussion seems to have decayed into some inconclusive babble, and I thought Superuser might be a good place to get a conclusive result (even if it is in the negative).

So is there a way I can tell Windows to shutdown the machine after it is done installing the updates? Please note that I want it to shutdown and not restart, so that my PC doesn't stay on the whole night. I thought of scheduled tasks, but am not able to come up with a good argument that I can pass to make it do what I need it to.

Solution 1

Answer from above comments:

If you have your configuration established to only download updates (without install), once downloaded, if you shutdown your pc the updates will be installed. It works too with automatic config but it shows up a message box where you have to choose if wait (to 4 hours) or directly reboot. As the user wants.

From windows, as I know, there is no more ways to do it. Other choice is to make your own calculation of how many time it could delay the installation. You can create a batch file (or just WinKey+R) with this command: shutdown -s -t n where n is the time in seconds that system will be delay to shutdown. As note, you can use shutdown -r -t n where -r indicates a restart.

Solution 2

You can do exactly that with the command line tool WuInstall, in the simplest case you just use

wuinstall /install /shutdown

And the machine will shutdown after all updates are installed. There are plenty of more options, check documentation under http://www.wuinstall.com

However, there used to be one and it may be still around online, but thee is no free version anymore, just a free trial to check if it is what you are looking for.

Comments

[Karan]

Doesn't it show an Install updates and shutdown option already? You want to automate this so it happens every time?

[kosmos]

If you have your configuration established to only download updates (without install), once downloaded, if you shutdown your pc the updates will be installed. From windows, as I know, there is no more ways to do it. Other choice is to make your own calculation of how many time it could delay the installation. You can create a batch file (or just WinKey+R) with this command: shutdown -s -t n where n is the time in seconds that system will be delay to shutdown. As note, you can use shutdown -r -t n where -r indicates a restart.

[Werner Henze]

@kmsdev The "install updates and shutdown" option is also available when you have configured MS update to automatically download and install.

[kosmos]

@WernerHenze Yes, true, I didn't remember that, but If I am not wrong, it shows up a message box where you have to choose if wait (to 4 hours) or directly reboot. That's the reason why I changed it. Anyway, I don't know another way to get a better solution to OP's question.

[Shashank Sawant]

@kmsdev If you put that as an answer I will accept it in a day or so. To WernerHenze and kmsdev: This question has been flagged as a duplicated of superuser.com/q/351703/124004; but command line is not really what I was looking for. I suppose if something can't be done then there's no use of a question lying around on this forum. If you recommend I will delete this question.

[Shashank Sawant]

@Karan : Typically that's what I do. However, for the last set of updates the shutdown button didn't change in appearance (as it usually does when it is about to install updates before a shutdown). I wonder how updates work for Mac users.