When I go to the control panel, the drop down to change the automatic updates configuration is disabled. It says I need administrator access, but I have without a doubt an admin account.
Why is this disabled so I cannot turn of the automatic installation (and reboot) of updates in windows server 2008 r2?
Does this mean that the only account that can change this setting is the original admin account (username: administrator)?
A windows update recently caused the server to fail to boot up after restart!
If this machine is connected to a domain, you are most likely under control of the Group Policy, which has been setup to not allow users to make changes to Automatic Updates, this may include administrators.
I know this is not of much help but before I join the machine to the Domain I make sure I setup the Windows Update settings correctly according to our policy. Otherwise what you see happens.
I would loging onto the server as the Administrator account for that machine and make the required changes.
Open Administrator Tools>>Group Policy Management. Find the appropriate policy. Computer Configuration>>Policies>>Window Components>>Windows Update
You should see settings set here that are overwriting your local settings.