disable auto windows update for windows server 2016 using powershell to change registry key

Question

I am trying to disable windows auto update by changing the registry key value for a VM. I have modified the 'NoAutoUpdate' key to 1 using below statement.

set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU -Name NoAutoUpdates -Value 1

But I see that after changing the registry value also some security patches were installed on the VM. So, Does changing registry key value requires a system reboot to take effect? if Yes, is there a way to avoid it, as it has to be done on production servers and we cant reboot them.

Answer 1

i turned off windows updates by configuring a fake WSUS server and disabling online lookups.

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