Yesterday, I that will take my laptop to see a client, when I was going to set off, yup, I couldn’t turn it off without allowing Microsoft to complete its upgrades. We all know just how long that takes, and I stood a train to trap, so I wound up having to wing the full presentation.

The infuriating thing is the fact I knew there was clearly an upgrade around, so I had checked the electricity settings that morning to find out if one was waiting to get installed. There was no update at 9am. Somehow Microsoft snuck it in without my noticing.

I do understand that men and women need to set up updates, but can’t Microsoft give to us an escape route? This is my computer and my software and my offer, so please could you trust me, only this once? Celia

It’s easy for being caught out by Windows updates, and I once left the property carrying an empty laptop, positive that the update would finish a long time before the battery ran down.

However, we have a fundamental divide between consumer and business versions of Windows. With consumer versions, including Windows 10 Home, Microsoft has a paternalistic take a look at updates: it tries to accomplish what’s perfect for people who don’t really know what they are doing. Business versions - Windows 10 Pro along with the Enterprise and Education editions - are created to allow IT departments and knowledgeable customers with additional hold. That includes strategies to defer some updates for any week, on a monthly basis or even a year.

Many update problems stem from people using consumer version of Windows, which is understandable for sole traders and firms that are they canrrrt employ IT staff. I don’t even think the other features in Windows 10 Pro - BitLocker, Hyper-V, Remote Desktop etc - will be much use to individuals in your position. However, it doesn’t cost much to upgrade, and may even be worth every penny if having the capacity to delay upgrades helped won by you a new client.

Otherwise, Microsoft carries a Windows Update FAQ and also a help page that has a troubleshooter you can download to aid fix update problems.

Update strategy

Laptops which are only used intermittently seem prone to receive forced updates. Microsoft efforts to download updates in the shadows without users disturbance or even aware it’s happening. If you've an always-on desktop PC, the operation is almost completely reliable. If you use a laptop for intense work then shut it down if you stop, there aren’t many gaps for updates to get downloaded and installed. You can help by setting your laptop to settle awake to have an hour or two while it’s charging.

You could also pre-empt some inconvenient upgrades by in search of them.

Set aside an hour or so each week to scrub up your PC, tidy away files, look backups and maybe run another virus scan with similar to Malwarebytes Free. During your housekeeping session, run the Settings (cogwheel) app, click “Update & Security” and discover if any updates are pending. If you will discover, you may install them or click “Advanced options” and decide on a time and date if you want them installed. If there aren’t, go through the button that claims “Check for updates” to see if it finds any.

Your PC may appear being up-to-date, but research online may find updates marked “pending install” or “pending restart”. After you’ve installed those, check again, concerning may be all the more updates to setup. If you need a lots of updates, they have an inclination to come in batches, you cannot assume all at once.

Pay particular attention following the second Tuesday of each one month - “Patch Tuesday” - when Microsoft usually releases security fixes.

Microsoft is updating almost 700m PCs running Windows 10, and yes it doesn’t try and update all of them at the same time. By checking for updates, you are able to jump the queue and have them set up at your preferred time, not when Microsoft’s update servers bypass to it.

Schedule a restart

When you do have a restart pending, the Settings app provides two options: “Restart now” and “Schedule the restart”. Choose to schedule it and you are able to enter to start a date and time to the restart, which means it is possible to put it off for about six days.

Also visit “Advanced options” on the very same Settings screen, and select the very last option: “We’ll show a reminder when we’re likely to restart. If you want to see more notifications about restarting, turn this on.” Instead of simply restarting right at that moment you entered, Windows 10 asks again, making it possible to delay it again.

Active hours

Windows 10 helps you to set “Active hours” inside Windows Update part of the Settings app. Click on “Change active hours” to line the times if you usually takes place PC. You can reserve 18 hours outside of 24 for work. Microsoft will often not improve your PC of these times.

If you're using your PC, you need to get a “Heads up” notification to share with you a restart is pending. You can either hit “Restart now” or “View settings” and select an occasion and date for your restart.

I suspect that Microsoft did once restart my PC in doing my active hours, after I left it unattended for the couple of hours, so always save any work-in-progress beforehand. It takes only a second hitting Ctrl-S.

Metered connections

Microsoft is aware that not everyone has unlimited broadband, so that it allows for “metered connections”. By default, Windows 10 sets ethernet wired and wireless networks to non-metered, and mobile connections to metered. People who have capped broadband and unlimited mobile broadband could switch these around, though the defaults suit most users.

If you've got a metered connection, Windows Update is only going to download priority updates automatically, therefore it will be under your control to download whilst. Setting both connections to metered will limit the quantity of data Microsoft downloads, causing you to be less likely to acquire a major update if you don’t expect one.

To set metered connections, run the Settings app, select “Network & Internet” then select “Change connection properties”.

Frankly, I don’t think setting metered connections offers enough benefits to become worth the effort, however, many people will find it useful.

Windows 10 Pro

The business and professional versions of Windows 10 provide with additional hold, even to those who are not IT experts. For example, the advanced options page inside the Settings app includes an added control, Pause Updates. This prevents any updates from being installed to the next week, though if the time increased, you can't pause it again.

If you might have Windows 10 Pro, this is actually the simplest answer to the Windows update problem. You can simply install all available updates on (say) a Sunday then pause updates in your working week.

You can transform it to “2 - Notify for download and notify for install”.

The business versions of Windows add Group Policies, that allow IT managers to regulate how their fleets of PCs work. However, it is possible to edit them manually. Type edit group policy inside Windows search box and run the editor (gpedit.msc), discover Windows Update from the Administrative Templates section, under Computer Configuration. The default setting is “3 - Download the updates automatically and notify if they are ready to get installed”. You can adjust it to “2 - Notify for download and notify for install”. That will reduce the chances of Windows 10 installing downloads after you’re not ready for them.

GPEdit also enables you to defer “quality updates” for about 30 days, and “feature updates” for as much as 365 days. This is helpful for businesses that must test applications before installing updates. It doesn’t prevent your PC from restarting to fit security updates, in fact this doesn’t take very long.

Disable updates

Windows geeks know you could do almost everything with its Administrative Tools. For example, double-click Services, in order to find Windows Update from the list. Yes, you are able to control how this particular service starts up, and you are able to stop it from running soon you next reboot Windows. People shouldn’t wreck havoc on Services unless they really know what they are doing. However, a compact utility called Winaero Tweaker provides easy accessibility to all forms of tweaks, details is Disable Windows 10 Updates. This is not something I recommend, but you can find times when should it be a useful short-term expedient.