Update: Revised the entire guide and uploaded a registry file that contains all the tweaks, which can be integrated into an image with NTLite. These changes should make it much easier and faster to use the guide, and to also further modify the tweaks if you want to experiment on your own.
 
Good move adding the tweaks.reg file to your guide Hellbovine. In my first attempts to build an image, I had somehow managed to introduce hidden characters (such as spaces at the end of each line), when copying from the html and pasting to a text file. So even though NTLite added them to the build OK, the reg key mods didn't work.

Thanks also for the additional explanations on the function of each key in the second spoiler too - that's useful.

So now having these registry key mods in place, I see the ability to pause updates for 208 weeks (1460 days) appears in Settings > Windows Update.

After the chaos of updates in Win 10, I want to move to a more managed approach with Win 11. So my preference is to manage all updates 100% manually. My plan was to download them from the MS Updates Catalog, and then manually install them on each of my three machines.

However I read your post in the topic Downside of removing Windows Update... talking about updating via NTLite.

Hellbovine said:
From the top menu bar, click on "Tools" and it has a "Download Updates" option which can selectively pull the updates you want from the Microsoft servers. This method essentially acts like how Windows Update used to work in the old days, like on Windows XP where users had complete control of the situation and weren't forced to download updates or drivers they didn't want. You can use this method to also update your live Windows...

"... complete control of the situation..." is what I would like. Using NTLite to do updates sounds a bit simpler than manually copying update files to each machine and then running each update file on each PC. Is this how you manage updates on your machines?
 
I had somehow managed to introduce hidden characters...
I'm going to update more guides next week, so I'll go back and make sure they all have uploads to help avoid this issue in the future.

...Is this how you manage updates on your machines?
The approach that I use currently is to download the latest ISO straight from Microsoft when they release the new version around November of each year, since those include every Windows Update already integrated into the image. After that, I prepare it by following my own guides, with the gist of it being to trim the editions, integrate tweaks, then cleanly install the new image.

I use that install for the next 12 months, while keeping Windows Update and related features paused the entire time. Then, when the next version comes out again, I repeat this whole process, with the extra step that I go back and manually verify that every tweak I use is still valid for this new iteration of Windows, since Microsoft often evolves features and will add, replace, or deprecate things.

There are other methods more suitable though for the people whom need the piece of mind that constant patching gives them, and in those cases I would recommend to keep Windows Updates paused, but use the Windows Update tool built into NTLite, since it behaves like the older operating systems did, allowing users to choose which downloads to install.

The big thing about Windows Updates is it can restore registry keys and components back to defaults, so component removals and registry tweaks have to be reinstalled after every update, if the users wants to be sure the tweaks are still working. What I mean by reinstall, is if someone used an NTLite preset then they need to investigate the "Remove reinstalls" feature in NTLite, and people that use .reg files like myself need to right-click on those files from within the live Windows and install the keys again, then reboot.

Now, with all that being said, there are exceptions to the rule. The huge one for me recently was that version 22H2 was too buggy on release, so I refused to use the new ISO and remained on 21H2, until I can take a look at how things are when 23H2 becomes official.
 
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Devising a manageable Windows update plan to suit your own needs is a really interesting subject. I like the idea of handling one big update per year to roll all MS update chaos into one event.

But when an H2 release arrives, how do you determine its overall state of bugginess?

The Windows release health page has Known Issues links for each H2 release. But a quick scan of the Windows 11, version 22H2 known issues and notifications page doesn't seem to list very many bugs. Is there another reliable source(s) for known issue information? I imagine there would be many 'bug' reports floating around on tech social media pages. But how do we figure out which are actual bugs?
 
Known issues and notifications will only list major bugs with the most visibility, based on user impact or exposure. There will never be a complete listing of known bugs, outside of MS internal.

Regardless of the Windows milestones (21H2, 22H2, 23H2) -- new features have be inlined in the so-called Moment 1, Moment 2, and Moment 3 builds which have been slipped inside the normal monthly updates cycle. If you have been updating Windows all year, then 23H2 isn't really a dramatic change.

23H2 caps off the end of W11 changes, as W11 will begin entering a maintenance-only phase and W12 starts a new development cycle.
 
garlin said:
... the so-called Moment 1, Moment 2, and Moment 3 builds...
I had not heard of this WU terminology before.
So garlin, are you saying that the 2xH2 releases are really just another snapshot in time of the rolling ball of MS updates and fixes?
ie MS are constantly releasing updates, then releasing bug fixes to earlier updates in later updates. So a 2xH2 update will have feature changes and fixes just like any other point in time?
 
...how do you determine its overall state of bugginess?
You're asking the right questions, but they are some of the most complex topics in Windows, and I'm not always sure how to make it easy to digest, so please bear with me if it's too long or not as direct as you may have hoped for, such as a checklist.

Something like this is mostly based on hands-on experience, because we have to know how things are intended to function before we can know if it's bugged. This means doing hundreds or thousands of hours of researching documentation and manually experimenting, to learn how things work under the hood, and to establish a familiar baseline to compare against when we tweak things.

If there was an easy way to find all the bugs, Microsoft would do it and we wouldn't have threads like these. That's why quality control teams exist, to manually bug-hunt in different ways. Nowadays though, the customers are the testers, because it's cheaper to release alpha products and let customers finish the project for the developer, and sadly that has become standard practice.

Take a look at this thread (link1) for example, where I discovered the 22H2 task scheduler bug. I found it by just doing hands-on testing. I notice all sorts of bugs and typos like this, and report them using the Feedback Hub when I come across them. I found typos in the power plans, a memory leak in the Windows Mail app, I got the Nvidia/Windows DPC bug (link2) acknowledged, and plenty of other things.

I'm not sure how to better explain my methods, other than to direct people to the Gaming Lounge (link3), and urge them to go through every guide and do all the steps, regardless if someone needs or agrees with the tweaks, because the whole point of that exercise would be for it to act as a Windows training camp that would give someone years of skills and knowledge in a one or two week period, which took me 30 years of learning the hard way. After that, people can springboard off those guides and continue with their own research and tweaking.

Is there another reliable source(s) for known issue information?
Like Garlin said, they don't post all the bugs unfortunately. My task scheduler bug wasn't on there, but it was confirmed by many people and fixed in a later build, so we know it existed. Another issue was how long it was taking Microsoft to fix listed and unlisted issues, and that finally started wrapping up recently, since they were breaking things (link4) while fixing others. Here's one of the better articles (link5) on the 22H2 bugs.

Windows has constantly been in the news for years now, with countless articles on the topic of how buggy Windows Update has become ever since Microsoft made changes, such as firing their quality teams (link6) and now employees report bugs they come across while doing their unrelated jobs. There are also subreddits where sysadmin complain (link7, link8, link9) about updates frequently breaking things.
 
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Thank you for compiling all that information and links Hellbovine. Now I see what we are up against and understand your once-a-year update plan a lot better. Think I will adopt the same methodology, start reading more widely about the 2xH2 releases and try to form a view whether to proceed each year or wait. These annual H2 releases and their state of bugginess, would make a good discussion thread for those that might be thinking along the same lines.
 
Hellbovine a question to you sir
if I change "Expiry" part of your .reg file to January 1st 2027, would that work or do I have to change "start" time as well ?
StartTime can be any time in the past or present (right now).
EndTime can be any time in the future.
But ExpiryTime = EndTime

If you want, change the year from 2026 to later.
Code:
[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"
 
StartTime can be any time in the past or present (right now).
EndTime can be any time in the future.
But ExpiryTime = EndTime

If you want, change the year from 2026 to later.
Code:
[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"
Thank you
 
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