Options for patching

Craig234

Distinguished
Apr 23, 2006
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Windows 10 is too pushy on patches.

On Windows 7, it'd notify me when a patch was available, and I could do it when I want as I recall.

Windows 10 puts up a window that it wants to patch, period. You can't use other programs until you open it.

When you open it, it's already scheduled the patch. Your only choices are to change the time or to do it immediately, unless you 'defer patches' altogether.

So, are the only options to either have it be this pushy forcing patching, or to 'defer patches' altogether?

Is there anything wrong with deferring and running the updater when I want?
 
Windows Pro has some options.

Otherwise I think it is registry hacking to disable it completely and then manually downloading the patches every patch Tuesday.

With Pro I believe you can also set up a local VM running a WSUS server to handle your own patching that way. You would also have to set up a domain controller as well.

https://www.howtogeek.com/224471/how-to-prevent-windows-10-from-automatically-downloading-updates/

I don't bother with it myself, just let Windows do its thing. But when your computer can boot in 8 seconds, updates tend to take less than a few minutes on average. My other computers also do it pretty quickly during off hours if they are running.
 
Just tried the patching.

When it started up, it said 'unable to boot, cannot access needed device 0x0000f', run repair.

I did a repair, and like the last time, it said 'unable to repair' after running several minutes.

Then I powered off and booted and it worked like last time.
 
It was said there are various options on Wn 10 pro, but then no response what those are.

Just had the usual behavior. I went afk and came back to find it had started patching on its own.

It was 23% done and still going. I figured it'll hang at 23% as usual.

It did. I power cycled, it rolled back and rebooted and hung again, as usual.

I power cycled again and it booted and runs fine, as usual.
 
Hi, a [simple google search] brought up these 3 pages with a lot of info that might, or might not help you. Some of these pages may be outdated as MS is updating and changing things around.

http://www.redmondpie.com/disable-turn-off-automatic-updates-in-windows-10-heres-how/
http://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-automatically-windows-10
https://mspoweruser.com/turn-off-windows-update-windows-10/

I would start by disabling the Windows Update service.
Then try the Group Policy Editor.
Turn on the "Metered connection", although I've heard this doesn't help anymore.

You can also try [O&O ShutUp10]. It has a lot of privacy options and I see options to block Windows updates.

It is well known that MS is now trying to force everyone to stay updated, even with drivers. I'm not sure if you really can or cannot block all updates unless you have some type of complicated external (hardware) firewall setup. Good luck trying.
 
Thanks for the help.

Since today it was forcing an update again, I used power cycling to try it and it appeared after two power cycles to work.

But about two minutes after it finished and booted, it came up with a wind saying it's not current and needs to update - but at least this time it had an option to cancel the update, though it was still pushy and if you pick cancel it gives you another window with reasons to update and you have to confirm.

I think it said the current was around 14333 and I'm on about 10240. No idea why it didn't update when I did an 'update and shut off' and then it applied patches.
 
Seeing the ransomware issue I decided to try to install the remaining update, so I ran the updater.

It comes up saying there's one update to do to patch 1607.

But the it says 'downloading updates 2%' and it's not changing.

And there are no visible options to tell it to restart the download.
 
Same behavior again - it's consistent.

Got the window to update to patch 1607. Did an update and poweroff. It did that.

Power on, and it gets a hardware hang applying the patch always at 23%.

Power off and restart, it rolls back the patch and reboots.

It always hangs during that reboot - Windows logo dots stop rotating.

Then a power cycle and it works fine.
 
Interesting - it did it on its own yet again, system found hung at 23% - but I ran the 'hide patch' thing and it said it fixed something and try the patch again,
so I ran the updater and now the patch that was frozen at 2% downloaded was at 65% and is progressing. So we'll see.