No Reboot Patching

Posted: 1:38 pm
October 23, 2008
Microsoft
5 Comments

Another out-of-band patch has been issued by Microsoft today and if you are not in the practice of watching out for these things you’ll find your Windows systems rebooting again tonight. Little hidden secret is that most Microsoft patches do not require reboots at all.

Today’s gem comes courtesy of Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (958644) which will reboot your system by default. Here is how to get around that. Click on the link above. Scroll down under Affected and Non-Affected Software and find your OS. Mine is Windows Vista and Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Click on Download and save the file somewhere. Now, just install this with a /norestart switch and you’re done.

noreboot

If you have UAC you’ll get some nagging, just hit OK:

noreboot2

Done.

Now I realize the jury is out on whether or not it’s faster to just let the system reboot in the wee hours of the night but it’s nice to know that you have options when applying Microsoft hotfixes. 

Meant for CPAs. 🙂