Guide: Pause Windows Updates

Hellbovine

Hellbovine

Well-Known Member
This guide explains how to pause Windows Update for any amount of time, and prevent the operating system from performing other related automatic updating without consent. The benefit of this guide is that it does not disable tasks/services or uninstall components, both of which break various parts of the operating system, instead it safely and cleanly modifies settings the same way Microsoft would do it. This guide was tested on Windows 10 Home (21H2), but should work on other similar setups too.

WINDOWS UPDATE
; Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced options > Pause updates > Up to 4 years
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings]
"FlightSettingsMaxPauseDays"=dword:000005b4

; Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced options > Pause updates > Until January 1st, 2026
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings]
"PauseFeatureUpdatesStartTime"="2022-07-01T20:00:00Z"
"PauseQualityUpdatesStartTime"="2022-07-01T20:00:00Z"
"PauseFeatureUpdatesEndTime"="2026-01-01T20:00:00Z"
"PauseQualityUpdatesEndTime"="2026-01-01T20:00:00Z"
"PauseUpdatesExpiryTime"="2026-01-01T20:00:00Z"

The "FlightSettingsMaxPauseDays" is the most important key of all, since it ties all of this together and makes it actually work without any bugs or quirks. This is an undocumented key that controls the default 35 days maximum limit for pausing updates, and without it everything else gets ignored.

The timestamps here are in what is called "Zulu" time, which is what the "Z" stands for at the end of each key's value. Really this just means GMT (Greenwich mean time), which also is the same as UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), but all you need to know is:

- The StartTime for the keys is July 1st, 2022, 8pm UTC
- The EndTime for the keys is January 1st, 2026, 8pm UTC

Note: I used this end date because the end of support for Windows 10 is October, 2025, so once you get close to this date you should obtain the latest ISO from Microsoft and work on making a final NTLite image to use until Windows 10 is killed off permanently. I also made sure that the start dates were not more than 1,460 days away from the end dates, so that it played nice with the FlightSettingsMaxPauseDay key limit of 1,460 days that I set.

OTHER UPDATERS
For good measure I would group the Windows Update keys with the following companions, since the Microsoft Store is another automatic downloader, as well as the Devices and Printers updater. Also, even when Windows Update is paused it will still forcibly download a display driver and potentially other drivers, so a registry key is included to address that:

; Start > Microsoft Store > Settings > App updates > Off
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsStore\WindowsUpdate]
"AutoDownload"=dword:00000002

; Start > Settings > System > About > Advanced system settings > Hardware > Device Installation Settings > Do you want to automatically... > No
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Device Metadata]
"PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork"=dword:00000001

; Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Automatically download drivers > Off
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DriverSearching]
"SearchOrderConfig"=dword:00000000

All of these keys can be added to a live install of Windows, or integrated into an image using NTLite so that they are in effect immediately after installing the operating system, for all users on the computer. With these tweaks you can still manually perform Windows Update, and can also change the pause time in the advanced options page to any date, up to 4 years into the future. This guide essentially gives control of Windows Update back to the users again.

For more guides like this one, visit the following link:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/gaming-lounge.2999/
 
Last edited:
Hellbovine said:
Now here's the major warning I should give: I have not used the same computer for longer than 35 days to see if something else in the OS will just ignore the FlightSettingsMaxPauseDays and reset things anyway. However, I did simulate several days by running the following command a few times, while rebooting the computer in between, and Windows Update never automatically downloaded anything:
Click to expand...
Run it in VM, disable time sync with host and external NTP and run the clock forward... I believe the docs say there's some nuance with the "when WU last checked" timestamp.
 
garlin said:
Run it in VM, disable time sync with host and external NTP and run the clock forward... I believe the docs say there's some nuance with the "when WU last checked" timestamp.
Click to expand...
Ah yeah really good idea about moving clock forward, I didn't even think of that. I'll work on that now and update when it's done.

I did see that timestamp key you're talking about, it was named something like WaasLastUpdate or similar, I can't remember exactly offhand, and I was worried I would have to manipulate it, but so far I got away without touching it. I'll see how the clock test turns out.
 
Okay, so I went back and did more testing thanks to Garlin's idea. This is a long read, but I wanted people to know that this guide had additional thorough vetting ontop of what I originally did. Here's what I tested this time, and the results I got:

1) I have the time service disabled, and syncing off. Then I changed the date to the year 2025. I plugged in my ethernet (I was totally offline on this clean install I had just done, minutes ago, with no drivers installed yet) and then I gave it a minute of idling before doing anything.

2) I loaded up Microsoft Edge, which then gave me the "Your clock has the wrong time" error, just so I could confirm that something was indeed picking up the new time on my clock.

3) Then I loaded up the Microsoft store and went to the downloads page, to see if they were sneaking anything in there, and it wasn't, so that was good.

4) Next I went into the Windows Update settings page and it still said everything was paused, with no updates installed.

5) Now I ran the processidletasks command and waited for it to finish, and then I checked my ethernet adapter data usage, and also the Windows Update delivery optimization data usage page, and both showed no signs of Windows Update.

6) I rebooted the PC, then I found the keys that I think Garlin was referring to, and I deleted them (I saw these keys being modified when I was originally creating this guide and working on this stuff):

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\StateVariables]
"UpToDateStatusRecalcTimestamp"=-
"WaasAssessmentCheckTimestamp"=-

Note: It has a =- because that's how I deleted it, via a .reg file. Normally it has a bunch of numbers there.

7) I did steps 2-5 again to see if forcing those timestamps to update would change anything, and all still appeared to be good.

8) As a last ditch effort to get it to reset on its own, I then enabled the time service, fixed my clock time and synced it with Microsoft, rebooted, then did steps 2-5 again. Still no Windows Update or Microsoft Store auto downloads.

I think this guide is probably good to go, unless there's something else that needs testing that I missed. If someone wants to give this a shot on Windows 11 I'd love to hear how that goes.

I should note that I am on Home edition too, which is really nice that it's working for this edition, it makes it a much more useful tweak that way.
 
If you like PowerShell for date conversion.

July 1, 2022 8PM GMT
Code: 
([System.BitConverter]::GetBytes((Get-Date '2022-07-01 20:00+0').ToFileTime()) | foreach { ('{0:x2}' -f $_).ToUpper() }) -join ','

00,20,19,25,85,8D,D8,01
 
Updated original post to streamline and simplify things, and incorporated forum feedback.

I still want to revisit this tweak again in the future because although it works great, it doesn't quite feel perfect to me. I want to explore more of the related settings. I'm still hopeful for example that I can stop Windows from trying to download and install display drivers automatically, though this might be a pipe dream. Edit: addressed in new update below.
 
Last edited:
- Updated post to include SearchOrderConfig which stops Windows Update from automatically installing drivers without the user's consent, such as an Nvidia Display Driver. This is important because Windows Update is notorious for installing wrong drivers and/or outdated versions. On my machine it installs a driver that's 20 versions old (over 2 years ago). Instead, now I can manually install whatever version I want, such as the latest version from Nvidia. Anyone that tries to manually run Windows Update will still be able to download drivers though, so in effect it's just another way to give user's control over the situation, like how it used to be on older operating systems.

- Updated post to include PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork which handles automated downloads for some things that appear inside the "Devices and Printers" page in the Control Panel.
 
I'm still at it. LOL So Just copy the 2 sections above to a text file and change it to .reg at the end? I'm not savvy at creating registry files correctly. For instance, do I need to place "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" at the top of the file? I like the option to apply reg files for individual things rather than using a collection of registry entries that target multiple things, like your Reg_3_Settings.reg does. Thanks!
 
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regedit & reg command require "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" to be the first line of every .reg file.

You can collapse multiple keys into a single, giant file or organize them into sets of files. Windows and NTLite doesn't care (you can import as many files as you want). The last applied change to any key wins if there are conflicting values.

To add a comment, begin any line with a semi-colon. Comments are not allowed to start in the middle of a line.
 
Thanks! I don't know how you have the patience to answer so many questions. So glad that I finally bought this software, which was criminally underpriced. Who designed it, anyway? Google seems to have forgotten.
 
Hellbovine said:
This guide explains how to pause Windows Update for any amount of time, and prevent the operating system from performing other related automatic updating without consent. The benefit of this guide is that it does not disable tasks/services or uninstall components, both of which break various parts of the operating system), instead it safely and cleanly modifies settings the same way Microsoft would, giving users more control, like how it used to be in older operating systems. This guide was tested on Windows 10 Home (21H2), but should work on other similar setups too.

WINDOWS UPDATE
; Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced options > Pause updates > Up to 4 years
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings]
"FlightSettingsMaxPauseDays"=dword:000005b4

; Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced options > Pause updates > Until January 1st, 2026
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings]
"PauseFeatureUpdatesStartTime"="2022-07-01T20:00:00Z"
"PauseQualityUpdatesStartTime"="2022-07-01T20:00:00Z"
"PauseFeatureUpdatesEndTime"="2026-01-01T20:00:00Z"
"PauseQualityUpdatesEndTime"="2026-01-01T20:00:00Z"
"PauseUpdatesExpiryTime"="2026-01-01T20:00:00Z"

The "FlightSettingsMaxPauseDays" is the most important key of all, since it ties all of this together and makes it actually work without any bugs or quirks. This is an undocumented key that controls the default 35 days maximum limit for pausing updates, and without it everything else gets ignored.

The timestamps here are in what is called "Zulu" time, which is what the "Z" stands for at the end of each key's value. Really this just means GMT (Greenwich mean time), which also is the same as UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), but all you need to know is:

- The StartTime for the keys is July 1st, 2022, 8pm UTC
- The EndTime for the keys is January 1st, 2026, 8pm UTC

Note: I used this end date because the end of support for Windows 10 is October, 2025, so once you get close to this date you should obtain the latest ISO from Microsoft and work on making a final NTLite image to use until Windows 10 is killed off permanently. I also made sure that the start dates were not more than 1,460 days away from the end dates, so that it played nice with the FlightSettingsMaxPauseDay key limit of 1,460 days that I set.

OTHER UPDATERS
For good measure I would group the Windows Update keys with the following companions, since the Microsoft Store is another automatic downloader, as well as the Devices and Printers updater. Also, even when Windows Update is paused it will still forcibly download a display driver and potentially other drivers, so a registry key is included to address that:

; Start > Microsoft Store > Settings > App updates > Off
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsStore\WindowsUpdate]
"AutoDownload"=dword:00000002

; Start > Settings > System > About > Advanced system settings > Hardware > Device Installation Settings > Do you want to automatically... > No
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Device Metadata]
"PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork"=dword:00000001

; Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Automatically download drivers > Off
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DriverSearching]
"SearchOrderConfig"=dword:00000000

All of these keys can be added to a live install of Windows, or integrated into an image using NTLite so that they are in effect immediately after installing the operating system, for all users on the computer. With these tweaks you can still manually perform Windows Update, and can also change the pause time in the advanced options page to any date, up to 4 years into the future. This guide essentially gives control of Windows Update back to the users again.

For more guides like this one, visit the following link:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/gaming-lounge.2999/
Click to expand...
I integrated these registry values into my NTLite image and it seems to work. However, I did notice my windows send a notification saying that they are installing a new feature. The windows update service and update orchestrator service both started running at that point. Still though, it never seemed to actually install an update as far as I could tell. Granted, I did not test it for a long time. It was in a VM and I did not want to keep it running long-term.

Is this normal? Thoughts? Here's a video of it.
https://youtu.be/THYp24r9o6E
 
Scheduled tasks and services still run, that's normal behavior because they have more jobs than just pulling KB updates from Microsoft. Windows update isn't actually downloading or installing any KB packages though. Click on "View update history" to see the updates that have been installed, and as long as it's paused the list will stay empty. In the Network settings you can also view "Data usage" and compare that to a default install of Windows, and you'll see that your computer is not retrieving nearly as much data anymore.

I'm not entirely sure what the notification on the bottom right is from since I don't get that on my machine. Did you install the extra 3 keys from the "Other Updaters" section? The only time I can recall seeing that notification was when I used NTLite templates to remove components. You have a lot removed in your image, did you use one of the built-in templates? I think that notification only appears because it's prompted by an error that is caused by a component removal. I made a post about it recently (link).
 
Last edited:
Hellbovine said:
Scheduled tasks and services still run, that's normal behavior because they have more jobs than just pulling KB updates from Microsoft. Windows update isn't actually downloading or installing any KB packages though. Click on "View update history" to see the updates that have been installed, and as long as it's paused the list will stay empty. In the Network settings you can also view "Data usage" and compare that to a default install of Windows, and you'll see that your computer is not retrieving nearly as much data anymore.

I'm not entirely sure what the notification on the bottom right is from since I don't get that on my machine. Did you install the extra 3 keys from the "Other Updaters" section? The only time I can recall seeing that notification was when I used NTLite templates to remove components. You have a lot removed in your image, did you use one of the built-in templates? I think that notification only appears because it's prompted by an error that is caused by a component removal. I made a post about it recently (link).
Click to expand...
Yeah, I checked the update history and nothing was there. I didnt go as far as to watch network activity since I didnt have any of the usual tools to do so installed on the VM.

I only integrated the main registry values found in your top-most spoiler titled "Windows Update", alongside one in the second spoiler for disabling windows store auto app updates. The others I did not integrate.

This is probably not an issue. I mainly wanted to post about it here to see if it's something you've seen before.
 
It all seems to be working as intended then. The keys you left behind are responsible for external devices, such as routers, printers, etcetera, as well as allowing drivers to be installed from Windows update, even when it's paused. That activity should show up in the data usage monitor which is built into Windows and available in the Network Settings page, no 3rd party tools needed.
 
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