PowerShell Workaround Lets Windows Users Pause Updates Until 2030, Guide Shows

According to the article, users first open Windows Settings, go to Windows Update and choose any date on the calendar to pause updates. They then right-click the Windows logo and open Windows Terminal (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin). The guide says to run PowerShell commands that write three registry entries under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings: PauseUpdatesExpiryTime, PauseFeatureUpdatesEndTime, and PauseQualityUpdatesEndTime. In the sample, the entries are set to Jan. 1, 2030, and users can edit the date in the code to any year-month-day value.

The article notes that the normal Windows Update settings page only lets users pause updates for up to 35 days. After that period, updates need to be installed before another pause can be set. The registry approach is presented as a way to set a much longer pause directly, although users are advised to reopen Windows Update to check whether the new pause date is displayed.

The guide also provides background on why Windows updates have become more frequent. Microsoft changed Windows 10 to a software-as-a-service model, replacing service packs with regularly scheduled feature updates, cumulative quality updates, driver updates, and other patches. In Windows 11, feature updates have moved to a yearly cadence, and monthly cumulative updates have increasingly been used to add features after version 22H2.

For businesses that cannot tolerate frequent changes, the article says managed Windows devices can use Group Policy, mobile device management, or Windows Update for Business to defer feature updates by up to 365 days and quality updates by up to 30 days. WSUS administrators can approve or reject updates to control deployment timing. LTSC editions receive new feature releases roughly every two to three years and do not get ordinary feature updates during their support lifecycle, though they continue to receive monthly cumulative updates.