alt-92 – blogIT

On a regular Windows 7 install, Action Center in Control Panel notifies the user in case settings are not set to defaults or if maintenance settings are not set  – for instance, if you’ve configured Windows Update to prompt for install (and not automatically install available updates on shutdown), or Windows Backup.

Notifications are presented by means of the little Action Center flag in the systray, and a popup window:

You can disable these messages normally in the Action Center either by clicking the links provided or by changing the Action Center settings on the left.

On most Corporate networks however, Control Panel entries are either limited to user specific settings or even blocked altogether, in which case Action Center is not available but the notification will still bug you about the settings  – like when you’re using SCCM for instance to install updates.

That’s not a bad thing per se, as Antivirus products also use the Action Center to notify you in case something is wrong.
Simply hiding the Action Center flag may not be the solution, that’s like sticking your head in the sand saying neenerneenerneener and waiting for that freighttrain to hit you head-on.

In that case, Group Policy Preference allows you to enter presets and disable the abovementioned prompts.
I’ve used Process Monitor to filter on the exact registry entries used to configure the settings.

Then, create a GP preference and snapshot* the disabled items.
*These are REG_BINARY keys, the valuefield is too short to enter the values manually.

For reference, these are the exact keys and binary values used.

Windows Update:

Windows Backup:
 

Once applied to your User OU, these settings ensure the Action Center will still prompt for any other mishaps but ignore Windows Update or Backup.