Microsoft will let you pause Windows Updates indefinitely, 35 days at a time keeps showing up in conversations for a reason. The story below covers what is actually happening, where the trade-offs sit, and what a careful reader should take from it.
Windows users will no longer be forced to run automatic updates in the middle of a game or a busy day. Microsoft is rolling out some long-awaited changes to Windows Update to users on its Dev and Experimental Windows Insider channels, including the ability to indefinitely delay updates up to 35 days at a time.
Last month, Microsoft announced a slew of upcoming changes to improve Windows 11 and address some of users’ most common complaints about the platform. Chief among the company’s planned fixes was making updates less disruptive. In its blog post on Friday, Microsoft says you’ll be able to “extend the pause end date as many times as you need” and that there are “no limits” on how many times you can reset to another 35-day window. If you don’t re-pause updates at the end of the 35-day period, updates will run as usual.
The changes to Windows Update also include more detailed titles for driver updates, which will now include the device class they apply to, such as display, audio, or battery.
Additionally, Windows 11 will now always have options in the power menu to restart or shut down without running updates, as well as the option to skip updates when setting up a new Windows device. Microsoft is also “unifying the update experience” to bunch together updates so users don’t have to reboot as frequently. Instead, “updates will download in the background, then will wait for a coordinated installation and restart.”
