Windows Update Options: AKB2000016

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[Mike]

AKB2000016: Guide for Windows Update Settings for Windows 10 By PKCano
Great information and thanks a lot for putting this huge guide together and updating it.I do have some curiosity questions.
I do have some curiosity questions.

1.  Is the condensed version of the guide that is linked through the Ask Woody Newletters updated on a regular basis?
2.  I’m curious why in the Group Policy Setting you select #2 rather than #3 ?  See image below

Thanks,  Mike

EDITED: html to text – incompatible formatting (only simple bbcodes please)

• This topic was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Mike.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Mike.

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[Elly]

#2 is ‘notify for download and automatic install’
#3 is ‘auto download and notify for install’

For people with metered access, who need to budget and schedule around their monthly limits, it is important not to be downloading anything they don’t have to… and sometimes a problematic update will remain hidden by wushowhide, and then will be superseded by a later one, that might include a fix, and so the problematic update never requires being downloaded/installed, and using up one’s limits.

@PKCano has already reviewed the updating changes in 2004, and included those recommendations, as well as updating the articles for Windows 7 and 8.1, and does so, every single month…

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Elly.

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Mike

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#2 is ‘notify for download and automatic install’
#3 is ‘auto download and notify for install’

Thanks Elly, but if you are using 1909 the instructions are to select option #2.   So my question remains:  Why wouldn’t you want to select option #3 so you could control the installation of the updates?

Am I thinking about this wrong?

Mike

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You control the installation by controlling the download. If it’s not downloaded, it can’t install.
If the update is not acceptable, I don’t want it on my computers and I don’t want to waste the bandwidth to download it either. Downloading something I don’t want is also a waste of computer resources when I am trying to do something constructive on my computer connected to the Internet and a waste of disk space if the drive size is limited (my VMs run on 64GB disks).

AKB2000016 is a Guide, not set in stone. I use what works best for me and only provide the example for anyone who wants to use it.
Not everyone has fast Internet speeds, unlimited free bandwidth, and enormous storage space.

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AlphaCharlie, Elly, Mike

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Thanks PKCano. One other question then if you know: If a person did select option #3 as shown in my first post, what would actually happen or show in Windows Update and…. would you be able to review and delete the uninstalled update that was downloaded or perhaps save it?

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Since I have never taken the chance of downloading something I didn’t want, I’ll make an educated guess.

“Download updates but let me choose when to install them” – Win7/8.1
If it works like it did in Win7 and 8.1, the next time you restart (shutdown) the computer, the update will get installed. So what you have really chosen is when you can next shutdown or reboot, not when you can install.

I suspect that stopping the installation at that point would be a real pain. Stop the update Service? Delete the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Downloads folder (or maybe the whole SoftwareDistribution folder)? Did it create the hidden install folder in the root of C: and you need to delete that too? And then run DISM to stop the pending actions and clean up the mess? I’d have to try it to find out what needed to be done.

Well, thanks, but no thanks.

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Elly, Mike

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When Woody say to pause automatic updates, is it a general recommendation.

You said that pausing updates will cancel the “notify for download and install (2) ”

so why somebody should want to pause updates ?

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Win10 Home is probably the most common consumer Edition.
It does not have Group Policy.
The only way Home Users can control updates (without 3rd party blockers) is with Pause, Metered connections and wushowhide.
Woody recommends this as a means of control for Home Users.

If you have Win10 Pro, you have additional options to control updates.

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Elly

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But if we add this registry line in Win10 Home will it work like if we

had Group Policy set to ” (2) Notify, dowload, install”  ?

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[Coldheart9020]

Home users don’t have the option of using Group Policy, so I suppose it is a general recommendation in that it applies to any given Windows 10 user, many of whom may not be using the Pro edition.

Edit: Didn’t see PK’s reply before posting.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Coldheart9020.

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Pause is available to all Editions. Pro can use it too.

But Pro has more/better options for controlling Windows Update using Group Policy.

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Elly

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WSaltamirano wrote:

why somebody should want to pause updates

Because Windows updates are poorly tested before release and do cause problems for some people.
Most people let Windows update as and when it wants, but you do have a choice.

cheers, Paul

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Elly, Coldheart9020

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