Newsletter Archives

• Defer updates, Pause updates, Delay updates, and the big unknown of Win10 1909

  Posted on October 23, 2019 at 10:38 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Yes,  there’s a difference between Defer updates and Pause updates. But that’s just the tip of the micro-plastic infused iceberg.

  The main sticking point: Win10 still has both concepts floating around, they conflict, and we don’t have any idea how the conflicts are being resolved — a problem that’s going to get worse with the release of Win10 version 1909, which doesn’t follow the Defer, Pause, push, pull or prod rules.

  Details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Thx @b, @PKCano

  Windows 10 Releases, Windows Patches/Security defer updates, Pause updates, Win10 1909

• Newly revealed dialogs show how Windows Update can be stalled in the next version of Win10

  Posted on February 27, 2017 at 15:18 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Ed Bott, who’s become the voice of Microsoft, has just posted a couple of interesting screen shots and an explanation of how Win10 Pro/Enterprise users will be able to delay forced updates in the next version of Win10 – the “Creators Update” due next month.

  You should take the article as gospel truth.

  The long and short of it: Although the dialogs don’t appear in the current beta build 15042, at some point in the future Microsoft will release a build of Win10 version 1703 that lets you control when cumulative updates are installed.

  One of the dialogs shown in the article gives you the ability to Pause updates “for up to 35 days” by sliding a switch. Although it isn’t stated explicitly, apparently “updates” in this case refers to both cumulative updates and version changes. It also isn’t clear why the slider says “up to” – they’re either paused or they aren’t, I would guess.

  The other dialog, which appears to overlap the “pause updates” dialog, gives you three independent choices:

  • Wait for a version to be declared Current Branch for Business before it’s installed on your computer (the choice that keeps you out of the “unpaid beta tester” category).
  • Defer a version change for up to a set number of days. Bott implies that you’ll be able to defer a version change for up to 365 days after it reaches CBB level.
  • A very poorly worded setting “A quality update includes security improvements. It can be deferred for this many days” with a drop-down box that apparently runs up to 30 days. I’m assuming a “quality” update is a cumulative update. I have no idea how other Win10 updates – servicing branch changes, drivers (particularly for Surface machines), ad-hoc security patches like the just-released IE and Edge patches, and any other security patches that aren’t rolled into cumulative updates — will be affected.

  There’s also no indication of how the “Pause updates for up to 35 days” slider interacts with (replaces?) the “defer quality updates up to 30 days” setting. Are they additive? Do they cover the same patches? Why does one max out at 30 days, and the other sits fixed at 35 days?

  We haven’t seen the dialogs yet. We haven’t seen the group policy settings that conform to (conflict with?) the settings. And we don’t know when we’ll get any or all of the above, except they’ll presumably appear before Creators Update hits RTM.

  Windows Patches/Security defer updates, Pause updates, Windows 10 Creators Update