if you're not going to let me do this microsoft then let me turn off auto restart all together.
image caption: A Microsoft Windows screen showing "Active Hours" with start time set to 12 AM and end time set to 12 AM and an error that says "Choose an end time that's no more than 18 hours from the start time".
The real solution is to set it so it starts just before you are supposed to wake up, and ends 6 hours before that. That gives you the active hours as intended, and it won't reboot the system in the middle of work ever again.
Windows turned that off because people refused to reboot for weeks. You can get more time with Windows pro, but updates are still inevitable.
This is because many (most?) updates aren't actually applied until you reboot. Same goes for Linux and macOS, actually, but Linux will happily let you keep your machine vulnerable to getting hacked for months.
Easiest way to prevent unexpected reboots is to manually reboot. There are ways to mutilate your OS to turn off the forced reboots, but Windows recovers from such mutilation remarkably well as an antivirus defence.
Microsoft won't back down, unfortunately. You could also install another OS if you're sick of Windows and don't care about system updates. Most of Lemmy will happily recommend a selection of fringe Linux distros are in style these days. Or you could run ChromeOS Flex on your machine, or throw a load of money at Apple, those won't force you to reboot either!
That annoyed me with Windows too, however, Active Hours adjusted to the times that I actively used my PC. As I kept my PC up to date and never kept it running while not in use for too long, I've never been threatened with a forced restart randomly. That being said, a user should have full control over their PC. They will though in turn be responsible for any poor outcomes due to making poor decisions.
I ended up choosing a Linux distro over Windows because I have absolute control over my PC at all times. Freedom to modify, to potentially break, but also easily recover my distro if I truly fuck up.
What fully functioning adult even uses their computer for 18 hours straight? Last time I used my computer for more than 12-14 hours was probably when I was a teenager. Pretty sure if I had used a computer for 12 hours straight right now, my head would hurt for the rest of the day, and the next one as well.