How Can You Postpone the Windows 10 Updates?

Windows 10 releases updates twice every year, bringing in more features.

Though updates are usually advantageous as it introduces new features, there is a disadvantage too of these updates.

A major update can break things.

We all know the prime purpose of the updates.

Windows 10 updates, sent by Microsoft aims to keep your operating system updated.

Well, as just pointed out, these are great.

But occasionally an update can go wrong.

You can delay the updates for around a week or two to find out whether there are any significant issues launched with this update. You may also delay the update if you are in the middle of a project with a tight deadline and cannot afford to let anything go amiss in such a situation.

Though you cannot stop the updates, you can certainly pause them for some time.

Pause Windows 10 Update for 7 Days

To pause the updates for the time being, adjust the settings.

To adjust the settings, complete the following steps:

1. Click Start.
2. Open Settings.
3. Open Update and Security.
4. If the Windows Updatepage do not open, click Windows Update in the left pane.
5. The pending updates are listed on top. If there are no pending updates, your system is up to date. If you want to stop your system from getting updated for the coming 7 days, scroll down and click the Pause updates for 7 more days button.
6. To keep delaying it for seven days at a time, keep clicking it every week. The update will be delayed seven days at a time. To update, click Resume updates.
7. To pause the update till a specific date, go to the Advanced options.

NOTE: You can pause the update only for 35 days.  

Pause Windows 10 Update for 365 Days

If you have Windows 10 Pro, Education or Enterprise, you can delay the update for 365 days after they are released.

Thus, you can wait till businesses test the major feature updates, ensure functionality of all features before you start using it.

As a lot of us use Windows 10 Pro on our laptop or desktop, we can also take this advantage. However, after the release of May 2020 update, that is version 2004, Windows has hidden it. You can complete the following steps to delay the update for 365 days.

1. Open the Start menu.
2. To open Local Group Policy Editor, click Edit Group Policy.
3. In the left pane, click Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates.
4. Click Windows Components > Windows Update.
5. Click Windows Update for Business.

You can delay the Feature Updates and Preview Builds as they are big version changes.

Do not delay the Quality Updates. These are small security patches and it is better not to delay them.

Though you can delay the updates, it is better not to do that for very long as you will be missing out on new features. If you are still scary of allowing the update, test the feature on an alternate machine and then if you find it stable enough, update other systems.