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's approach, is that it does not break anything and is a safe and official method, how Microsoft intended it to be tweaked. This guide was tested on Windows 10 Home (21H2), but should work on other similar setups.

INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS
The tweaks discussed in this guide are all included in the attached file, which should be integrated into a Windows image. To integrate a registry file, load an image into NTLite, click Registry from the left menu, now click Add from the top menu, point NTLite to the registry file's location and then process the image. Next, cleanly install Windows and the tweaks will be active out of the box.

Once you reach the desktop you will notice that Windows Update is paused until 4 years from now, unless the user manually resumes updating. The advanced options page for Windows Update also extends the choices, so that you could pause for any date in the future, rather than the original 35 day limit that Microsoft sets. This guide also includes tweaks that make other automated updaters follow these same principles.

WINDOWS UPDATE
This section discusses some of the details regarding the tweaks specific to Windows Update.

- The "FlightSettingsMaxPauseDays" is the most important key of all, since it controls the default 35 days maximum limit for pausing updates, and is a required companion key for the other tweaks to work correctly. A value of "000005b4" for this key means it should allow pausing up to 1,460 days and can be modified to any amount of time.

- The "Pause" and "End" keys are what tell the different Windows Update tasks and services if update features should be active or not. The keys that have the word "Start" signify when the update feature was paused, and the ones with the word "End" and "Expiry" signify when the update feature should automatically resume itself. The timestamps are in Zulu time, signified by the "Z" at the end of each key's value. This translates into a start date of July 1st, 2022 at 8 PM (UTC) and an end date of January 1st, 2026 at 8 PM (UTC). If the "Start" dates are set to a time before Windows gets installed then it allows Windows Update to be paused by default out of the box.

- The "SearchOrderConfig" key prevents Windows Update from forcibly installing new drivers and upgrading existing ones. This is important, because the driver installation feature can be rather dysfunctional, offering bugged or incorrect drivers that cause performance issues and crashing.

OTHER UPDATERS
This section discusses some of the details regarding tweaks related to various automatic update features.

- The "AutoDownload" key prevents the Microsoft Store from updating apps silently in the background. You can still manually update apps individually, or all apps at once from within the Store app though.

- The "PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork" key prevents the Devices and Printers section of Windows from silently updating external devices with optional drivers and add-ons. Nothing installed by this feature is required for anything to work correctly, it is optional software that most people do not realize exists on their machine, since it does not typically show up in the start menu or other related places.

Visit the Gaming Lounge to find more guides like these.
 

Attachments

  • Tweaks.reg
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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:
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.
 
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.
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 on top 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.
 
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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
 
Update: Revised the guide to streamline and simplify things, while incorporating forum feedback.
 
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- 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.
 
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/
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).
 
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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).
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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Thank you very much for this guide Hellbovine.
If we add a reg file with these WU settings, what should we do with all the settings in NTLite > Configure > Settings > Windows Update?
Do we leave them at their default setting? (snip below is from W11 Enterprise-22H2)
I am wondering which takes precedence when a reg file is added via NTLIte - the reg file setting or the NTLite > Configure > Settings?

2023-10-03-NTLite-Configure-Settings-WU.png
 
If we add a reg file with these WU settings, what should we do with all the settings in NTLite > Configure > Settings > Windows Update?
My guides could use NTLite .xml files, except I use tweaks that NTLite doesn't recognize, so I organize them into .reg files since they are easy to use and NTLite can integrate those. You don't need to do anything else in NTLite, unless it's specifically noted in my guides. NTLite has additional tweaks that you might want to use though, so feel free to browse around and add things to your images.

On a related note, if you process an image using my guides, then load that customized Windows into NTLite again, some of the NTLite > Configure > Settings options will now change colors and text to reflect their new disabled/enabled status. This will only happen to the settings that NTLite has been manually coded to check for, but the point here is this screen will try to reflect the changes detected on a loaded image.

I am wondering which takes precedence when a reg file is added via NTLIte - the reg file setting or the NTLite > Configure > Settings?
When you click on a toggle in NTLite for something like the "Settings" page, under the hood it's installing a standard registry or group policy key. NTLite makes frequent use of group policy keys and group policies do take precedence above other keys so that is something to be aware of.

For your specific question here though, if you have a conflicting tweak, such as enabling delivery optimization in your screenshot, then also integrate a .reg file that disabled delivery optimization--NTLite should install both tweaks, but they have the same registry path so whichever one is installed last will be the value that actually sticks around and gets used, because the latest keys overwrite previous ones.
 
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Thanks for the fast and detailed answers Hellbovine. They have been very helpful in understanding more about NTLite.
As you can tell, I am new to NTLite and my first few build attempts have not worked as expected. Part of the problem may be using Enterprise, as I notice it has a different layout to Professional in the ...\WindowsUpdate area of the registry (and probably many other areas as well). As I would like to incorporate some of the reg changes in your Optimized Guide too, I think changing to the Pro version might help.
But also I think I may be doing something wrong in the whole NTLite build sequence as well.
So I will try using Professional, read the Documentation pages again carefully, do some small tweaks at first, and then gradually try adding additional changes.
 
I will try using Professional...do some small tweaks at first, and then gradually try adding additional changes.
That's a good plan, and if you're still having problems after reading the stuff below, let me know the specifics and I'll help you find the culprit:
1) Windows 11, as well as version 22H2, have repeatedly come up as being buggy, and from many different angles (BIOS, Firmware, Windows, NTLite, Drivers, Software). This is all normal though, it takes several years for every operating system to mature, and with how actively Microsoft is evolving W11 right now, these stability and bug issues will remain a constant problem for tweaking enthusiasts until Microsoft fully shifts to W12. It's possible Microsoft updated something that broke this guide, but we need more research and reports to know for sure.

2) Many people using a form of Enterprise/LTSB/LTSC are doing so for alleged gaming benefits. I've never seen these claims validated yet, and we tend to see people having extra problems on these because they are stripped of features that some software and games require (dependencies). Home or Pro is all anyone needs, unless the person is certain otherwise. This issue is complicated too, since all the famous LTSC license selling sites are illegal, and that brings extra problems, such as cracks, recycled keys, and premodified images.

3) The issue may just be that you're trying to adapt too much at once for your needs, rather than changing a dozen things and testing in smaller layers. I think the most efficient way to learn computers is to follow a guide 100% as written until you finish the image successfully, then install it and use it for a week to get acclimated and familiar with the customizations. Later, you can make another image, and experiment with adapting tweaks to the way you want them, but it should be easier now, since you're more familiar with everything and confident.
 
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