System being woken to action windows updates despite registry flag and GP Editor setting

Hi all,

I have a frustrating issue which has arisen since (clean) installing Windows 11 Pro on to an X299 Desktop. This situation was present previously under the earlier Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit 21H2 operating system but was readily resolved by either disabling the 'Windows Update Power Management to automatically wake up to the system to install scheduled updates' setting in the Local Group Policy Editor (Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Update) or alternately by editing the following Registry Entry to contain a DWORD Value of 0 :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AUPowerManagement

In Windows 11 Pro neither of these options function as they did previously in Windows 10 Pro.

The scenario is as follows: I have 'Wake on LAN' setup on the PC and at various predetermined time intervals I require the PC to Wake on receipt of a Magic Packet. This functions perfectly aside from the machine being 'woken' in the early hours on random occasions which correspond to windows updates (as initially occurred under Windows 10 prior to application of the above remedies) but I have thus far not found how to resolve this in Windows 11 Pro.

After some searching I discovered that in Windows 11 Pro the 'Windows Update Power Management to automatically wake up to the system to install scheduled updates' setting in Local Group Policy Editor has now in fact been moved to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Legacy Policies>Windows Update. However setting it to disabled as before appears to do little and the issue remains. Similarly, I have verified that the above registry entry (0 Value) is also present.

Curiously, and despite the actions described, under Settings>Windows Update>Advanced Options>Configured Update Policies>Policies Set On Your Device it reports: "Enable automatic wake up to install scheduled updates Source: Administrator Type: Group Policy" this is reported whether the GP is set to Enabled OR Disabled. It is almost as if this policy is set elsewhere but I have not so far identified this.

Please note that I am aware that I could simply prevent all wake actions in power management but as you might imagine I wish to avoid doing so as it will affect the present (otherwise) trouble free operation and naturally I don't wish to disable automatic updates either.

I would be interested to learn if anyone might suggest how else I might re-establish this policy action.

Many thanks for taking the time to look and thank you in advance for any suggestions forthcoming!

PC Pilot

Please try it as below:

Hi Jefferywen,

Thank you for responding!

I have already set the adapters to the condition indicated as they are required to remain powered upon shut down so as to receive the ‘magic packet’.

Indeed the ‘wake on lan’ actions are not at issue here (that functions entirely as intended) rather the situation at question is that whilst the previous policy action is not being applied Windows Update detects the active adapter and causes the PC to startup unattended in the early hours wasting energy.

This would not be an issue in itself were the PC to shut itself down again once these updates had been successfully applied. Unfortunately ‘Windows Update’ leaves the PC on with only the configured power-saving actions remaining to save at least some this unnecessarily wasted energy!

This was the reason for applying the policy condition in the first place as it allows the system to be ‘powered off’ (in which state only the adapter remains active) waiting for receipt of the ‘Magic Package’ at the predetermined times.

Previously. (with the policy functioning) it was then ONLY the Windows Updates that were inhibited thus enabling the predetermined ‘Wake Commands’ to be the only thing to ‘start up’ the otherwise ‘powered off’ PC.

Hopefully this clarifies the situation.

PC Pilot

Bump...

Sorry to bump this but still wondering if anyone can offer a solution???