How to disable windows updates and is it worth it??

[Im_Enzo]

Basically I'm currently on 1709 with updates paused. I'm hearing tons of people complain about update 1803 and that for am graphics users like me it forces us to update to newer drivers which is an issue for me. If all of this I've heard is true how would I go about disabling updates or is there no way to do this

[Spotty]

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[Electronics Wizardy]

Id instll updates. THere are lots of big security improvements, and many nice quality of life feture improvements(i think dark mode, better edge). 1709 isn't supported any more, and I have  lot of systems on 20h2 and simmilar without issues.

[kirashi]

24 minutes ago, Im_Enzo said:

Basically I'm currently on 1709 with updates paused. I'm hearing tons of people complain about update 1803 and that for am graphics users like me it forces us to update to newer drivers which is an issue for me. If all of this I've heard is true how would I go about disabling updates or is there no way to do this

I've run every version of Windows 10 since its' release, and while I'll say that some versions have hiccups on certain hardware, I've not personally experienced any issues updating all the way to version 20H2. I'd recommend updating to the newest version, after ensuring you have backups, of course.

[Arika]

56 minutes ago, Im_Enzo said:

I'm hearing tons of people complain about update 1803

maybe back when it was released...that update is march 2018, we're now in June 2021.

 

Just let it update to 20h2

[Eigenvektor]

If you're worried about feature updates breaking stuff, delay those for a time (maybe a month or three). By then the bugs will be ironed out. I'd definitely not disable updates altogether, since they fix bugs and security issues and some current drivers (e.g. Nvidia) won't run on older versions of Windows 10.

[jaslion]

13 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

If you're worried about feature updates breaking stuff, delay those for a time (maybe a month or three). By then the bugs will be ironed out. I'd definitely not disable updates altogether, since they fix bugs and security issues and some current drivers (e.g. Nvidia) won't run on older versions of Windows 10.

Pretty much what I do at home and on work for all systems. They WILL have something stupid that breaks everything at launch of the big update as they've basically had the mast 4 times at least so best to wait with those every time.

[BetteBalterZen]

I know that Windows updates sometimes - though I'd say rarely - do mess up some computers. But I have always just updated to the latest version ASAP and never had any issues at all. 

Yes sure, I have tried having weird Windows problems but nothing I haven't been able to fix. 

If I were you, I'd just update Windows - especially when you're running on such an old version / build

[rockyroller]

There was a windows 10 update that always ended up refusing to let me log in, so I always ended up uninstalling that one update. Then setting update for the longest time until it did it again and doing a routine backup of C.

 

Now whilst I was doing that for over a year, I also googled how to prevent that one update or all updates happening, and I can tell you none of them worked!!! Windows quite frankly doesn't want to not be updated. I think the official MS update blocker was called wushowhide and like I say, it don't work! I even had the updater have bold red text saying the admin had prevented updates and they still happened.

 

I can say after a year and a half of this routine the latest update 20h1 no longer refuses to log me in, so back to normal for me.

[Akolyte]

It is a bad idea not to update Windows.  Although you may get some benefits, I personally think the risks are too high.

 

You may like the control and predictability that comes with postponing updates - but as some in this thread have suggested vulnerabilities are released regularly for Windows. 

 

The most common way malware spreads nowadays, is via 0-day vulnerabilities.  This means that by not updating Windows, you may leave yourself vulnerable to a 0-day attack, such as a ransomware attack.

 

Now, on the plus side - as a consumer you are at less risk and less of a target than a business.  You are still at risk of having your data stolen, but if you practice very good data security practices (such as encrypting files, storing passwords in an encrypted password manager, not doing internet banking on the same machine you use for casual browsing, etc).   And you have a good reliable backup of your files, ideally in the cloud - you should be able to recover should your machine get attacked, without too much inconvinience.

 

I, personally, recommend choosing to defer updates (a setting in Windows Update), which will only install security updates and defer feature updates until they have been out for a while.

 

Or you could also choose a patching schedule, by doing the following:

1. Choose a day of the month you want to update,
2. Postpone updates until that day (you can do this by setting your connection to metered)
3. Backup your computer on that day,
4. Update your computer, and if the update breaks your computer - roll it back.  Otherwise, continue
5. Repeat.

^ That way, you're ensuring you install updates - but you also have control over when you install the updates and a way to roll-back. 

 

It's better that flat out not installing updates, as you probably won't have any issues with any updates.   And if you do, wait another month and try and update again, Microsoft may have removed it or replaced it with a fixed version of the update.

[SupaKomputa]

I maintain a bunch of pcs. All have 20h2 without major problems, different sets of configurations.

the only time (only on 1 pc) it screwed up is back in 2018, that i have to reinstall windows.

For my pc personally never had any problems with updates.

1709 is very old, you should at least have 1903 for some software / drivers to work properly.

 

[Rex Hite]

I disable updates on all my workstations. I would not even consider allowing them to auto-anything with respect to the OS. The only application I allow to auto update is the browser. On my workstations all Windows telemetry as well as bloat is disabled. For the way workstations get used in my business the risk of a broken workstation from an update is greater than from an exploit the update is intended to patch. That comes down to the way the workstations get used.

I  manually update once or twice a year when I do maintenance. But I do make a clone of fresh systems before I update. I don't regard Microsoft as any more trustworthy than any other application I run.