How To Pause Windows Updates? Easy Steps!

As you must have noticed, Microsoft provides minor Windows updates and cumulative updates once a month, and the feature updates twice a year. Microsoft has made sure to optimize the Windows operating system in a manner that each update brings new security patches and exciting new features.

However, some Windows updates can be exponentially larger than the others. We have had instances when Windows updates sucked away from our entire bandwidth cap only to download a small cumulative update with absolutely no major change to the operating system.

The ability to pause Windows updates comes in handy in such situations where you might be able to delay the updates that do not bring some major Windows features with it.

Pause Windows 10 Update

Prior to Windows update v1803, you were not able to perform any actions of the Windows updates, and your computer would download the latest updates whenever you would connect to the internet. The only way to postpone the updates was by setting your connection as metered.

With Windows v1803, Microsoft introduced the feature to pause Windows updates temporarily. With this feature, Microsoft intends to stop pushing feature updates forcefully, instead, allowing users to choose whether to install new versions or not.

Pausing Windows 10 updates also becomes extremely useful on shared computers or working in network environments as you will not be worried about updates running in the background and slowing down or restarting your computer.

How To Pause A Windows Update?

If you want to remove or reenable the Pause Windows updates features, here are the various methods you can follow for the same:

Method 1: Use The Settings App

The settings app is slowly becoming the hub for all the configuration items on your Windows 10 computer. You can pause Windows updates or reenable them from the settings app very easily. Here are the steps you need to follow for the same:

1. Press Win + I to open the Settings
2. Go to the Update & security section.
3. Windows Update should be selected in the left pane.
4. From the right pane, click on the Pause updates for 7 days option to pause updates for one week.
5. To customize the pause Windows updates features, click on Advanced options.
6. Here, under the pause updates section, you will find a drop-down menu that will allow you to select the date up to which you will be allowed to pause updates.

Note: You will only be allowed to pause updates for 35 days at a time. After that, you will either have to update the operating system or pause the updates again.

This is by far the easiest way to pause Windows updates on your computer. However, you can also make these changes via other methods, like the Group Policy Editor or the command prompt. Here are the methods for the same.

Method 2: Use The Local Group Policy Editor

The local group policy editor can be used to modify windows configuration files hello very easily. you can turn off windows updates using the local group policy editor. Here are the steps you need to follow for the same:

1. Open a Run dialogue using the keyboard shortcut Win + R.
2. Here type gpedit.msc and press enter to launch the local group policy editor.
3. Follow the path below by clicking on the appropriate options:
   Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update
4. In the right column locate the Windows Update policy and double click to edit it.
5. Select the radio button next to Disabled and click on OK to save the changes.
6. Next, go to the Configure automatic updating policy under Windows Update and double click to modify.
7. Choose the following option there:
   2 – Notify for download and notify for install
8. Restart your computer to implement the change you made.

Method 3: Use Command Prompt To Turn Off Services

The command line editor looks scary at the beginning, but it is one of the easiest ways to make changes to your computer and navigate the different directories within. To turn off Windows Update using the command prompt, follow these steps:

1. In Windows Search, type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to launch the command prompt with administrative privileges.
2. Type the following commands one by one and press Enter after each one to pause Windows updates downloads:
   net stop wuauserv
   net stop bits
   net stop dosvc
3. If you wish to resume Windows updates downloads, use the following commands in an admin command prompt:
   net start wuauserv
   net start bits
   net start dosvc

How To Disable The Pause Windows Updates Feature?

If you do not wish to see the Pause updates option on your computer, you can Remove the pause updates option completely. Here, I will show you the different methods to do so easily.

Method 1: From The Group Policy Editor

The option to turn off UI elements can be easily accessed here. Let us now see how you can remove the pause updates feature using the group policy editor:

1. Open the group policy editor as shown above.
2. Navigate the path below by clicking the appropriate options :
   Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update
3. In the right pane, locate the following option and double click on it to modify its settings:
   Remove access to “Pause updates” feature
4. Select the radio button next to Enabled to remove this option completely from the Settings app.

Method 2: Using The Registry Editor

if you do not have the group policy editor, you can modify the windows registry to enable or disable the pause updates option from the settings app. Here are the simple steps that you need to follow:

Note: Make sure to take a backup of the registry editor in case something goes wrong. incorrectly configured registry may lead to serious damage to your computer.

1. Open the registry editor from a Run dialogue or Windows Search. Click on Yes in the User Account Control prompt.
2. Navigate to the following location by pasting the path in the address bar of the registry editor:
   Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
3. Create a new key from the right-click context menu, and name it the following:
   WindowsUpdate
4. In the right pane, right-click while in the WindowsUpdate key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
5. Name the key as SetDisablePauseUXAccess and press Enter to save the entry.
6. Double click on the entry to modify it.
7. Set the value data to 1 to remove the option from your Settings app completely.

Wrapping Up

So there you have it. Now you know how to pause Windows updates, and turn off pause updates Windows 10 feature using the methods provided above. Comment below if you found this useful, and to discuss further the same.