I was just sitting at my computer writing up a protocol in word when windows restarted my computer to install an update. I lost what I had written in word as well as a canvas drawing, canvas gave me an option to save as windows was shutting down but windows closed the program as I was typing in a file name and while I expected word to come up with recovered document it did not. So some background: I had the updates set to download but let me decide what to install, and in the past I have always been given the warning window asking if I wanted to restart now or postpone after I chose which updates to install. I changed the setting back to the download but let me decide, so my real question is why did the setting I chose revert back to microsoft's choice? This is the only complaint I have had with windows7 but to be honest if I loose work to this again I am going back to XP.

According to your description, the Windows Update configuration was modified unexpected background. Because you are set as Download but let me decide what to install. This issue may be caused by some unexpected operation modify the settings or the computer cannot save the configuration or the related settings were incorrect. Now, you can change the settings as Download but let me decide what to install. And then test this issue in the next days. If the settings were changed, it means the configuration was changed unexpected. You just keep the current configuration on the computer to solve this issue. However, in the next days, the configuration was changed again. It means the computer cannot save the correct configuration or the related settings were incorrect, please follow the below steps to check the settings: Click Start, Run and type REGEDIT.EXE Navigate to this location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ WindowsUpdate \ AU In the right-pane, delete the two values AUOptions and NoAutoUpdate Navigate to this location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ WindowsUpdate In the right-pane, delete the value DisableWindowsUpdateAccess Also, you can change the settings in Group Policy, but if you are use the Windows 7 Home Basic or Windows 7 Home Premium, they did not have the Group Policy. You can only change the above registry to solve this issue. Click Start, Run and type gpedit.msc Navigate to the following location: => Computer Configuration ==> Administrative Templates ===> Windows Components ====> Windows Update Double click on Configure Automatic Updates Click Enable option->Under Options box, you can choose the settings on the computer and schedule time to install it->Click Apply and OK button At last, I recommend you enable the Word auto-save option in the Word avoid lose data when unexpected error occurred in editing word document. Also you can set the AutoRecover in the Word. Click Office left top corner, choose Editor Options->Click Save->check the checkbox before Save AutoRecover information every minutes And set the location to save the information. When you encountered any unexpected error, we can recover the documents from this location. However, if you want to know the detail guideless to configure the set, you can contact the Office Support.