Windows 10 updates that Microsoft regularly sends to your system are meant to keep your operating system up to date. These are mostly a good thing. But very rarely an update can go wrong and this is why some Windows users prefer to delay updates for a week or two to make sure there are no issues with the update. Also, sometimes updates come at an inopportune time; for example, when you are in the middle of a project with a limited deadline.
Joyful can’t stop updates completely, but you can pause them. There is also a way to disable updates, but it’s not permanent either. If you want to postpone them in case of any possible malfunctions, or if you want to delay them for as long as possible, here’s how to adjust your settings.
Pause updates
- Click the start button
- Click the cog in the bottom left to open the settings
- Open Update & Security
- You should be on the Windows Update page. If not, click “Windows Update” in the left sidebar.
- If you have any pending updates, you will see them listed at the top. You can also check if you have any pending updates. Otherwise, you will be told that you are up to date. Just below, you’ll see “Pause updates for 7 days”. Click this to stop your device from updating for a week.
- The Windows Update page will now tell you that your updates are paused. If you want, you can keep clicking “Pause updates for 7 more days” to delay updates for additional weeks. (I was able to take a break for up to five weeks.) To undo this, you can click the “Continue updates” option at the top of the screen.
- If you want to pause updates until a certain date, click “Advanced options” at the bottom of the page. Scroll down to “Pause updates”. Here you can choose a date to pause updates. Note: You can only pause updates for up to 35 days; after this period, you must update your device before pausing the updates again.
Set reboot times
Windows usually needs a restart to complete installing updates – and you may want to set your restart times to the most optimal time since an update can take your computer out of service from a few minutes to several hours.
- If an update is available, you will see it at the top of the screen. If you don’t see an update available, click “Check for updates” at the top of the Windows Update menu to make sure.
- If the updates are ready, you can click “Restart now” to restart (and finish this) immediately. Assuming you don’t want to do this, click “Schedule reboot” to finish the installation later.
- Toggle “Schedule a time” from off to on.
- Choose a time and date. Don’t forget to click the checkmark under the drop down options for time to save the selected time.
- If you go back to the Windows Update page and click on Advanced options, you can change various update options, including “Show a notification when your computer needs to restart to finish updating” and “Restart this device as soon as possible on reboot”. required to install an update.”
If you want, Windows can track when you use your device to schedule update restarts at an appropriate time. You can use this feature, called active hours, to set what times your device can restart.
- Go to “Change active hours” in Windows Update.
- You can toggle “Automatically set active hours for this device based on activity”.
- You can set your own active hours by clicking the “Change” link next to the current active hours.
- Set the hours in the pop-up window and click “Save”.
Disable updates
If you want to stop updates from happening longer than that, there is a way to disable the updates. But even this is not permanent; most sites are reporting that updates are in progress at the end (especially with a reboot). But this can give you some breathing space.
- Use Win+R to open the “Run” box and type “services.msc”. Press “OK”.
- Go to Windows Update and double click on it.
- Select “Disabled” from the “Startup type” drop-down menu.
- Click “OK” and restart your computer.
If you change your mind, you can follow the steps below to reactivate it. You may note that you can choose between “Manual” or “Auto”. (Most Windows 10 PCs are set to Manual, which means the update was triggered by an event and didn’t happen automatically when you rebooted.)
Update March 12, 2021, 10:20 pm ET: This article was originally published on May 22, 2020 and has been updated to include a section on disabling Windows Update.
