If you are managing windows devices using SCCM, you know the level of control it offers for the reboot experience through the client settings and the timely notification of impending reboots.
SCCM excels at ensuring users are well-informed about scheduled tasks, with toast notifications that are hard to miss.
However, when transitioning your Windows patching tasks to Intune (windows update for business) or adopting Intune for device management, you may notice a difference in the reboot experience. The controls for end-user experience are limited (especially the remainders).
In this blog post, we will explore options and settings that can help improve the end-user experience, particularly when configuring deadline settings.
Deadline Settings and Grace Period
When creating a Windows Update Ring policy and configuring deadline settings, it's essential to strike a balance.
Always ensure that the grace period is greater than the deadline for quality updates. This approach helps by sending toast notifications to the user regarding the pending reboot, allowing users to choose a convenient time for the reboot.
Here are some simplified terms to understand these settings:
- Deferral: This option allows you to offer updates to the device after X days from the release time.
- Deadline: It forces the installation of updates on the device after Y days
- Grace Period: It mandates a restart of the device after Z days. The timer starts once the device detects a pending reboot. Importantly, the grace period ignores active hours and forces a reboot.
With these settings in mind, let's consider an example. If our grace period is set to 3 days, the timer for the grace period will begin when the system detects a pending reboot. It will then automatically force a reboot of the device after 3 days.
Additional Settings for a Better End-User Experience:
In addition to the Windows Update for Business (WUfB) ring settings, two more settings play a crucial role in providing a smooth end-user experience.
- Auto Restart Notification Schedule: By enabling this policy, you can specify when auto-restart reminders are displayed. You can set the duration before a scheduled restart when the user should be notified.
- Auto Restart Required Notification Dismissal: This policy defines how the auto-restart required notification is dismissed. When a restart is necessary to install updates, this notification is displayed. By default, it disappears after 25 seconds. However, you can configure it to require user action for dismissal.
These settings are available in the settings catalog and can be deployed to device groups. When used in conjunction with the deadline settings and other configurations, they significantly enhance the end-user experience.
Wufb ring policy with deadline settings:
Additional settings:
Real-World Experience:
In my testing, on October 24, 2023, when patches were installed on a Windows 11 device, it entered a pending reboot state, and the user experienced the following prompts.
Day 1: User receives a prompt notification about the upcoming reboot. (all the notifications are user dismissal and not device)
Day 2: The user continues to receive toast notifications about the upcoming reboot.
Day 3: On day 3:
The following prompt appear ahead of 240 minutes (due to the Auto Restart Notification Schedule), followed by a final prompt before a forced reboot begins.
A final prompt before force reboot
Depends on your user experience and deadline settings configuration, restart notifications may differ.
Feel free to configure these settings according to your specific requirements and capture the end-user experience. This proactive approach helps you avoid any sudden reboots and ensures that users have the control they need.
10 Comments
Hello Eswar,
I have applied your configuration, and of course, it works. Thank you very much. However, there’s still a parameter I’m missing, let me explain.
Once the patches have been installed and it notifies me to restart, in the Start/Shutdown options, I only have "Update and Restart" or "Update and Shut Down." I don’t have the options to "Restart" or "Shut Down" alone.
I would like to have all four options in the shutdown menu. How can I achieve that?
Thanks.
Best regards.
Hi Luis,
what version of OS are you running? i am running windows 11 22H2 and 23H2 , on both the versions, if there are pending reboot due to patches, it shows Update and restart along with restart. Same for shutdown as well.
I will need to validate if there are any changes when the updates are installed and if MS hiding shutdown/restart to allow users to follow updates action.
i will get this checked with Nov patch schedule and update you how it looks like on 24H2 and 23H2.
Thanks,
Eswar
Hello Eswar.
I followed your setup, and the behavior of the update notifications is working correctly, of course.
However, there’s still something I’m either not doing right or missing. Even though the notification says I need to restart in 3 days, when I go to shut down my PC, it only gives me the options to update and shut down or update and restart, but I can’t just shut down or restart.
Where and how can I configure that?
Thanks.
Hi,
Do you know how to get the toggle bar be set to enabled by default for the setting "notify me when a restart needs to continue with updates"? Our users needs to toggle it to enable by themselves.
Hi,
are you referring to windows updates? when the device requires reboot post windows updates, based on your grace period and the restart timing, the notifications will appear to end-user.
Thanks,
Eswar
Hello,
How should I "correctly" set "Auto reboot before deadline" in this case? Yes or No? If I want the stations not to reboot in maintenance time(9-17) -> No? Do I understand this correctly?
If its set to "yes", the station restarts whenever the user is not active, right? Will the 240-minute „countdown“ apply in this case?
Thanks in advance
Hi,
Auto reboot before deadline only activates outside the maintenance window (before 9 or after 17) when the user is not active on the device.
This option helps to restart the device outside active hours and if you dont set this, the device will wait for deadline and do force restart during the active hours too.
Thanks,
Eswar
What is the frequency of notification, like every 1 hour or 2 hours or every day?
it is every day but Microsoft is bringing the custom notification interval into the wufb rings that should help to configure the frequency just like SCCM.
Thanks,
Eswar
Nice, thanks!