I’ve installed the March 2020 patches & got lucky with no problems.  However I have an issue with April 14, 2020 kb4549951- in searching Google I found too many reports of problems from different sources. I don’t have the skill or time to do proposed complicated fixes if there is a problem nor restore a disc image on a large drive- and I’m not rolling the dice and hope I get lucky.

woody wrote:

As for upgrading to Win10 2004 – heavens no! I hope I didn’t leave anyone with the impression that I’m recommending an upgrade so early in the unpaid beta testing cycle.

The first sentence of your blog post links to an article that says, “It’s time to update to the latest version of Windows — version 2004“. And that link is, “How to Install Microsoft’s Big Windows 10 May Update Right Now”.

Also see the third screenshot in #2177791 in AKB2000016 – I think they need to be set there also.

Pausing is what referring to. I want to be able to automatically pause after restarting after updates. I forgot to do that last time, after installing the May updates when we were at DEFCON IV.

My experience doesn’t match what you say. I have Windows 10 Pro, and I’ve had the quality updates deferral set to 28 days (and the feature updates set to 265 days) since I got my computer back in March. Yet, when I woke up this morning, I saw that Windows had downloaded the June updates (the quality update and the .NET update) and wanted me to restart to apply them, or it would automatically restart during inactive hours. That is why I had to learn how to stop a pending update, using the instructions I included above.

And it is why I came here, hoping there was a way to prevent this from happening in the future. The obvious solution to me would be some program that would automatically Pause updates after a successful update. The logic doesn’t seem difficult: check the current version number on boot. If it is higher than the previous on-boot version number, modify the registry to pause updates to the latest date possible,  and restart the Windows Update service.

anonymous wrote:

What’s to “get”? Windows updates have a higher risk of issues (as shown by actual reports) than many of us are willing to tolerate. You choose to take that risk–we don’t, and neither Woody, Susan, nor now David Murphy recommends that we do so.

It’s rather simple:

woody wrote:

Were I you—and this is what I do, too—I’d make sure I’m using at least Windows version 1909.

He’s not me.  Woody, Susan, David Murphy et al. may all be in agreement, but there is no singular answer in how to deal with Windows Updates.  I separated from the experts many years ago for the simple reason that the techniques I have been using, literally since Windows 95, are still easy, safe and bulletproof.  Having recent drive images stored offline enables recovery from any PC problem, whether updates/software/malware/hardware failure.  Deferring updates offers no protection against a failed hard drive.

anonymous wrote:

And even you admit that you’ve been bitten once before.

And if you had follower the link and read the thread, you’d see that I solved that little difficulty using drive images.  No big deal, it’s just being prepared.

anonymous wrote:

We had trouble with a Windows update once, and decided we wanted to do all we could to prevent that happening again, while still keeping our computer reasonably up-to-date.

I want to keep my machines fully up-to-date, and that’s what I do, without dodging updates.  And again, I’m not saying that everyone should or could do as I do, but some other members here use similar methodology with similar success.

anonymous wrote:

I’m glad you want to risk it. We need people willing to test. And you’re doing it in a real world scenario, not on some special “guinea pig” machine. So reporting whether you have issues is great. But I don’t get why you need to tell us every time that you’ve never had any issues

Because I have said that I will install updates as soon as they are made available, and I will report any issues I might have.  The broken DISM five years ago was something that I was able to correct in a couple of hours using drive images, and I don’t consider that a serious issue—no black screen, no BSOD, no missing profile, nothing.  Everything worked with the exception of DISM, I could put off correcting it until I had time, got it corrected, re-installed all available updates, and everything was once again copacetic.

While my particular application of the methodology may be considered unique, I am by no means the only member of AskWoody who employs that methodology to very good effect.  @DRW in this very thread has installed 2004, as has @b.

It’s a matter of being prepared.  Those of us who are, are not putting anything at risk.  For those who aren’t, the MSDEFCON system is a useful alternative.  It’s just that it’s not the only alternative.