How to Configure Automatic Updates for a Standalone Server

If you want to configure Windows Update on a Server that is not member of a Domain you have two options to do that:

• Using Group Policy Object Editor and editing the Local Group Policy object
• Editing the registry directly by using the registry editor (Regedit.exe)

Using Group Policy Object Editor

Open Group Policy Editor (Local Computer Policy)

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Updates

Set "Configure Automatic Updates" to "Enabled"

Set "Configure automatic updating" to the value you like (Values 2-5)

Set "Scheduled install day:" to the value you like (Values 0-7)

Set "Scheduled install day:" to the time you like

Set "Specify intranet Microsoft updates service location" to "Enabled"

Set "Set the intranet updates service for detecting updates" to your WSUS Server:portnumber

Set "Set the intranet statistic server" to your WSUS Server:portnumber

Set "Automatic Updates detection frequency" to "Enabled"

Set "Check for updates at the following" type interval in hours

Using the Registry Editor

The registry entries for the Automatic Update configuration options are located in the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

For further information look at: Microsoft Technet