While it is generally recommended to install Windows security updates, there are situations that make you want to postpone the installation. Maybe it is because of another faulty update that Microsoft released, a bug that you already experienced after an update was installed on your system, or just the desire to keep the PC running for a long period without forced update reboots.
Quite a few solutions exist that let you toggle the functionality using applications or scripts. Sordum’s Windows Update Blocker is just one program that you may use for the purpose.
And now there is also Pause Windows Updates. It is a tiny open source script that you may run on your Windows PC to pause updates.
Here is how it works: run the script after you have downloaded it and accept the security prompt to get a simple interface. There you may press keys on the keyboard to run corresponding actions. There are:
- (1) Disable Updates
- (2) Enable Updates
- (3) Disable Microsoft Telemetry
- (4) Remove Update Files
- (5) Manage Update Service
Press the h-key to get information about each of the actions. When you select the disable option, all update downloading and installing is halted. This includes updates that are in the process of being downloaded to the system.
Any update that has not been installed fully at this point needs to be downloaded in its entirety again once you enable updates on the system.
Since it is a script, you may review it before you run it on your system. Just load it in a plain text editor like Notepad to do so.
Closing Words
Pause Windows Update is an easy to use option to block updates on Windows machines temporarily. Most users probably won’t need the script or similar apps ever, but there are situations where it may come in handy.
Now You: how do you handle updates on your Windows PCs? Do you let them install automatically or prefer manual control over updates? Any tools you use? Feel free to leave a comment down below. (via Deskmodder)
I delay all updates long enough to learn if and how they cause problems. These days they cause problems more often then not.
I also need time to learn what pups M$ has added to the security updates and how to counter them before I install them.
Using Windows 11 is a never ending battle with M$. If I didn’t need it to run the latest PC games, all my pc’s would be runing linux instead of just some of them.
I click Windows Update’s “Pause updates for 7 days” button every month on the Monday before Patch Tuesday, to give the world a few days to work the bugs out of MS’s latest updates before they get installed on my machines. No need to installl additonal scripts.
Does not work on windows 7
cuz windows 7 is unsupported and dosent get any updates anymore