Do you want to prevent your PC from downloading automatic Widnows 10 updates? Here are some tricks that can be very useful
We are just a few days away from the next big Windows 10 update, which Microsoft will release at the end of May. Like all Winodows updates, this one, which will bring the version of the operating system to 1903, will be downloaded in the background and installed silently while we are doing something else. Until the moment when Windows will tell us that an update is ready to be installed and will ask us to do it, and then restart the PC.
But not all users are so sure that they want to leave Windows the freedom to update itself. Some, mindful of the big problems caused by the 2018 October Update, prefer to let others have the honor and burden of experiencing the new version. Others, aware that Windows 10 in version 1903 will take up a lot more disk space, would rather not install it at all. But how to block the update of Windows 10 to version 1903? There are two procedures to do this: the first for Windows 10 Home and the second for Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise and Education.
How to suspend Windows 10 Home updates
On Windows 10 Home, updates, big and small, are all handled by the Windows Update service. To configure the way our Win 10 Home system updates itself we need to open the Windows Update settings by typing in the search box of the Start menu bar “Windows Update advanced options” and pressing enter. In the screen that opens we’ll find several options, including a “master switch” called “Suspend updates”. The suspension, however, lasts a maximum of 7 days after which we’ll have to repeat the procedure and suspend the updates for another 7 days. The suspension cannot last more than 35 consecutive days and does not affect essential updates, such as those of Windows Defender. Also on Windows 10 Home you can also download Microsoft’s “Show or Hide Updates” tool that allows you to hide an available update before downloading it. If the update is hidden, it won’t be installed.
How to Suspend Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise and Education Updates
In the non-Home versions of Windows 10, so the Pro, the Enterprise and the Education, you can more finely tune the download and installation of updates. Also by accessing the advanced options of Windows Update you can choose a different “channel” for receiving updates: if you choose “Semi-annual channel (targeted)” you can set a number of days (up to 365) for which to postpone updates. With the normal “Half-yearly channel” (i.e. not targeted), instead, the updates will be installed automatically as soon as Microsoft has received enough positive feedback from its users and will give the “green light” to install the updates on all PCs with this setting selected.
How to suspend Windows 10 updates with the consumer connection trick
Finally, for both Windows 10 Home and Pro, Enterprise and Educational, it is also possible to suspend any type of update by making fun of the operating system. The trick is to set your Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection as “on consumption”: Windows, believing to make us save data and costs, will avoid any type of download in the background including that of updates. To do this we have to go into Windows settings and then “Network and Internet”. From here we have to choose “Change connection properties” and, in this screen, activate the “Consumable connection” toggle.