To avoid restarting server during working hours you easily schedule restart to be performed at night. Obviously the same can be applied to a workstation rather than server.

Create a text file restart.txt with text:
shutdown /r /c "Your message displayed before restart"
If you want to shut down instead of restart, use this text instead:
shutdown /s /c "Your message displayed before shut down"
Rename the file to restart.bat

a. For Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks
Add a new Scheduled task
In Task Tab > Browse > select your restart.bat file
In Schedule Tab > Schedule Task > select Once and set the restart date and time

b. For Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Scheduler > Task Scheduler Library
Create Basic Task
Name: Restart
Trigger: One Time, select Date and Time
Action: Start a program - select your restart.bat file
Finish

When restart is initiated and message is displayed you have 30 seconds to cancel the restart:
Start > Run >cmd
shutdown -a

Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008
Windows XP
Windows 7

This article uses a particular Windows Event ID 10016 error caused by Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on SBS Server 2008 as an example, but can be used to troubleshoot other 10016 (DCOM) errors.

Event ID: 10016
Level: Error
Description:
The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1} to the user NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE SID (S-1-5-20) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

1. Find name of the offending COM application:
Start > Run > regedit
Expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1} or just search for the ID (61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1) in regedit (F3)
Make a note of the "Default" value - IIS WAMREG admin Service

2. Fix the permission problem:
Start > Run > dcomcnfg
Component Services > Computers > My Computer > DCOM Config
IIS WAMREG admin Service > Properties
Double check that Application ID matches CLSID in the 10016 error
Security Tab > Launch and Activation Permissions > Edit > Add
Add the account mentioned in 10016 error (NETWORK SERVICE) and grant the equired permissions (Local Launch and Local Activation).


Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2008

If MS SQL database Recover Model is set to "FULL" and regular full backups are not performed databases log files (.LDF) can grow very large.

If you are working with a production database make sure you know what you are doing as you may loose ability to restore your database to any point in time since your last backup. If production database backups and storage management are set up properly you should never need to truncate logs manually.

To manually truncate log file on test/development SharePoint_Config database:

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio and run following SQL query:
USE SharePoint_Config
BACKUP LOG SharePoint_Config WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
This will truncate log file but won't reduce actual file size.

2. To shrink actual file run:
USE SharePoint_Config
DBCC SHRINKFILE (N'SharePoint_Config_log', 50)
50 - Log file target size in MB.
OR
SQL Server Management Studio > Databases > SharePoint_Config > Tasks > Shrink > Files

3. To prevent future growth of the log file run:
USE SharePoint_Config
ALTER DATABASE SharePoint_Config SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
OR
SQL Server Management Studio > Databases > SharePoint_Config > Properties > Options > Recovery Model > Simple


Microsoft SQL Server 2005

This article uses a specific MS SQL 2005 Service Pack 4 installation error as an example, but may help in troubleshooting other Microsoft and Windows Update problems.

Installation of SQL server 2005 Service Pack 4 fails and Event ID 20 Error is recorded in Windows System Logs:

Type: Error
Event ID: 20
Description:
Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80070643: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 4 (KB2463332).
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

This error is not specific to SQL 2005 SP4 and is just a generic code telling that an error was encountered by Windows Installer.
To get more specific code download offline Service Pack or Hotfix installation file from Microsoft. Just search MS download centre for KBxxxxxxx as displayed in Event ID 20 error. In case of SQL 2005 SP4 it is KB2463332.

Try installing your update running downloaded .exe or .msi. It will probably fail again, but this time you should be able to find more specific info in Windows Application Logs.
In case of SQL 2005 SP4 it can be something like this:

Type: Error
Event ID: 1023
Description:
Product: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - Update 'Service Pack 4 for SQL Server Database Services 2005 ENU (KB2463332)' could not be installed. Error code 1603. Additional information is available in the log file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Hotfix\SQL9_Hotfix_KB2463332_sqlrun_sql.msp.log.

Again, this is quite generic error, however this times it gives a path to a setup log file which will have much more information. Open the file in a text editor. Don't get puzzled by the amount of information. Just search for "return value 3" and examine text just above this string. One of the lines should have a specific error which caused setup to fail. Going back to our SQL example third line above "return value 3" is:
FTECa.DLL: ERROR: FTE: InstallFTERef: Fail to create FTERef file: C:\SQL\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\FTData\noiseCHS.txt, Err=3
In this case installation failed because path C:\SQL\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\FTData did not exist. Simply recreating missing folder fixes the problem. Obviously in your case error may be different.


Windows Server 2003
SQL 2005