As part of its efforts to improve Windows 11, Microsoft made an important promise: to give users more control over Windows updates. It now looks like this feature will arrive sooner rather than later. Neowin spotted that a regular Windows 11 leaker, PhantomOfEarth, posted on X. The post highlighted a change in the option to pause updates for the operating system, which was found hidden in the background (and activated using a Windows configuration tool).
There’s now a button that brings up a calendar. This allows you to pick a date until which updates will be stopped. When that day arrives, updates will resume. PhantomOfEarth noted that the limited dates currently available should be ignored, as this feature is still in very early development.
The feature isn’t even officially out for testing yet. It’s hidden in the most recent preview build released in the Dev channel (though the leaker suggests it’s likely in the Beta channel too). What this shows, however, is that this change is being implemented. We can hope to see the ability to pause updates in testing for Windows 11 perhaps this month or in May.
Pavan Davuluril, who leads the Windows and Devices group at Microsoft, previously promised that users would be able to pause Windows 11 updates for as long as needed in the future. So, this appears to be the first step towards that goal. The calendar will presumably let you select any date you want, and any length of time you want to pause updates for. Of course, “as long as you need” will likely have some time limit, probably a year or six months at least. You can’t, and shouldn’t, avoid updating Windows 11 forever.
If you’re wondering why you would want to delay an update, it’s true that Windows 11’s monthly updates include security fixes that should ideally be applied quickly. This is because any patched vulnerabilities become public knowledge and are more likely to be exploited. However, these cumulative updates also often contain bugs, as we’ve seen too many times with Windows 11.
For example, imagine if owners of a certain type of graphics card or processor are experiencing serious problems with an update, and these issues are widely reported on social media. What if some reports even say PCs fail to start after the update? In such a case, you would probably not want to risk your system crashing badly like that, so you’d want to hold off on the update.
Right now, you can pause updates on Windows 11 Home, but only for five weeks. You can pause them longer with Windows 11 Pro (though it’s a bit complicated, using the Group Policy Editor). You might want to do this on the Home version of the OS as well if a problem persists. Microsoft is going to give Windows 11 Home users that ability, and to do it easily – and rightly so. If you’re worried about an update for any such reason, you should be able to pause it for as long as you want.
Of course, as mentioned, there’s a balance to strike between pausing a worrisome update and not going too long without important security fixes. But that’s a choice for the user to make based on their assessment of the risks. We shouldn’t be forced to install an update after a month of holding off, just because Microsoft says so.
