Windows 7 & 8 Install New Updates: anytime it wants to?!

Today, both my desktop (Windows 8 Home Premium) and my laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) shutdown and rebooted to install Windows updates WHILE I WAS USING them. Yes, sitting there, typing, not idle, not at 3 AM when I have supposedly configure updates to auto install, and not with any warning or chance to postpone or override... Just, boom! Programs start closing, Windows logs me out, and "Windows is configuring updates". Then computer completely reboots, Windows starts back up, and resumes "configuring updates".

My question is, how is this acceptable? This is the default behavior of Windows. I have not modified it in anyway, I simply chose "install Windows updates automatically for me (recommended)" during the initial setup of Windows. Last I knew, that should not sign me up to have my computer randomly shut down while I am using it for something, possibly in the middle of typing a very LONG post on a forum or website.

And what of the only configurable setting I have access to (without making registry tweaks) in control panel, the one that says "Install New Updates: Every Day at: 3:00 AM". Should this actually read "Install New Updates: anytime Windows wants to?" My only other option is to disable automatic updates, and I highly doubt Microsoft wants to encourage that.

So essentially the Windows user world is supposed to put up with the possibility that their machine could shut down at any time while they're using it? How is that acceptable?!

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