Windows 10 Home users may not be able to turn off Windows Update

It looks like Microsoft will offer automatic updates to Windows 10 Home users. Customers on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 had the option to defer or select whatever updates they wanted to install manually, and that option seems to have been removed in Windows 10 as Microsoft seeks to ensure that the OS automatically installs the latest security as well as feature updates.

The EULA included with build 10240 — the one that's believed to be the RTM (release to manufacturing) version that'll come pre-installed — states:

The Software periodically checks for system and app updates, and downloads and installs them for you.You may obtain updates only from Microsoft or authorised sources, and Microsoft may need to update your system to provide you with those updates.By accepting this agreement, you agree to receive these types of automatic updates without any additional notice.

Windows 10 comes with several tiers of licensing: Current Branch, which includes Home users, and Current Branch for Business, to which Professional or Enterprise users belong. Automatic software updates are only applicable to Current Branch, or Home users, with Windows 10 Professional customers having the ability to defer updates for up to eight months:

Customers who are embracing Current Branch for Business do need to consume that feature update within the allotted time period of approximately eight months or they will not be able to see and consume the next security update.

That's according to Microsoft's senior product marketing manager Helen Harmetz. However, the wording states that users that don't receive feature updates will not get the security updates as well. At this stage, it looks like Enterprise users on the Long Term Service Branch are the only ones that get to defer select updates indefinitely, as that branch is updated only every two to three years.

While it looks like Microsoft's intention is to ensure that updates are delivered in a timely manner, its solution does have the potential to cause incompatibility issues with other programs.

Source: The Register; Via: Neowin

172 Comments

Indians with limited-data internet connections will hate this.
And here it begins...
Lol
Yeah, Indians opinion doesn't count, right? /s MS should listen to costumers instead of making decisions for them!
Costumers are a very small segment of customers. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
It's not that, it's the fact that this applies to a bit more than India. Like, the rest of the world.
Of course you're right. But even journalists pick good examples when they are reporting something. I don't like the "When in India?" tag but I think this is way different.
While I'm sure there is probably a switch to prevent downloading updates on limited connection, do you prefer to download security patch instead of seeing your PC transformed into a zombie sending thousands of spam accros the globe ?
There are contless reason why you might want to defer an update, forcing you to update is bad simply on principle.
Agreed. But then that is one of the reasons why I deploy Enterprise licenses across my home machines.
Well I'm running the Home 10240 RTM Version, & can choose how I use my updates. But you have to say W10 is good, don't like W10TP on my mobile though.
not on stupid "home" users any1 else can use a pro version, or do a regestry trewak to stop preventing and installing updates automatic this is just a good decsion.
please give those cou tless reason a home users might want to delay updates. enterprise users are worried their decade, mission critical legacy software might stip working. Home users don't really have that issue. If a home user is running really old, unsupported software, that software doesn't take precedence over updates that make the computer secure.The average users has no clue what each patch does and therefore aren't in the position to decide which one to install and which ine to delay. I've installed every update issued since windows 95 without much issue. in the rare occassion something goes wrong, you can always roll back the updates.
Which in turn, uses even more data!
But its not like you don't have option for unlimited data. U can have best of both worlds.
whats the big deal you can turn of windows update service in the task manager and its done, simply disable it.
Not the smart Indians who use firewall blocking update good luck sir
not installing patches and security updates sound smart to me. /s
Dude, it isn't just India that has limited data connections. My mother in law does. In London. So it's a little more widespread than irritating people in India.
Tell her to switch man XD its england unlimited is cheap as chips
I've an unlimited data connection and would never ever want to disable WU (although my router is currently broken). But those who want, I think they can simply disable Windows Update through system "Services" and update their anti-virus and other stuff manually. I'd never recommend anyone doing that that though. I believe Windows is very flexible and you can achieve whatever you want to in one way or the other.
You forget one thing, that a lot of users, like me, want to get all updates except drivers. I run windows update manually once a month, and if there are driver updates I always hide them if the hardware already works as expected. It is really common that new GPU drivers make a mess. There are several reports from people running the insider preview where they roll back the driver, reboot, and then the new driver are force installed immediately, and the only workaround is tiresome registry modifications.
Yes, you're correct. But I think there has to be a workaround to install those updates separately. Programs capable of doing that may get released soon, I think. TBH, this was one unnecessary decision by MS :/ Let the users decide what they want on their systems and what not.
Yesterday on Reddit someone was complaining about this problem and someone else showed an option to tell Windows Update not to install drivers anymore. I'll try to find the thread. It was in a small panel in advanced settings, somewhere really obscure.
Set your connection as "Metered Connection"..WU won't check for updates when connected to your router..
This option is not aviable for all types of connections like a USB dongle. It shows up as ethernet even though its mobile data. Users with such an option will be forced to get updates. Going to services to disable windows update is not simple for all home users.
With Auslogics Bootspeed you can force the OS to turn off WU
You can turn updates on and off. You can't choose which one to install and not.
I think there is always probability to disable windows update service in view local services
Yes better to run an unsecure computer and get it hacked into a botnet. That way your limited-data inernet connection will not suffer at all ;-)
If you have a data cap, and you're that close to it, you don't have to have your computer connected to the internet 100% of the time to stop updates. Otherwise, you open yourself up to security issues that the rest of the world doesn't want around. Sucks, but it is what it is.
I hope that Windows 10 updates will be more delivered as patches rather than downloading the whole size of the OS just like we experience during Preview Builds. Its really ridiculous that new feature implement for Windows 10 requires OS reinstallation which is bad in every angle. The only logical thing is that they will deliver this similar to patches, but we don't know yet since they didn't try that during Preview. Anyways, I guess updates feature updates won't be that too frequent, maybe just twice a month max or less. They will more likely deliver updates in bulk. Also Microsoft needs to announce the upcoming features and when it will push the updates in advance, maybe month or week before. If possible, put the announcement via Action Center and when the user clicks, it will open to the site describing the upcoming update. So users are prepared for installing an update. Though based on the agreement, they won't gurantee the user will be notified.
I like how the Xbox Team announce changes coming about a month in advance, around the same time we get preview updates if on the programme, they could do something similar with new features coming into Windows 10
so, indians don't update the os or apps in their phpnes? they don't install patches on windows 7? or do they save up their data for one big update after a couple months? i don't know how the internet works in india, but if you dom't have enough data to install updates, you have serious issues. I guess you can always disconnect the network if you use up the data and I believe you can set up windows to not download things if you are on a metered connection.
Just buy a Samsung, they'll disable it for you.
You can set a schedule though, so that it only downloads updates at certain times. In most countries you do get an uncapped option with your limited data at certain hours. Like here in South Africa it's from 12:00 till 07:00 on my current data plan.
Old news. And something new for people to crib about...
Crib?
Oops. LOL
We already knew that indeed.
Yup. Mary Jo Foley has been saying this for months.
Is everything OK? This had been told and known since way back... Only Pro can disable updates. Weird....
Slow news day...
This is what I was coming to say. They made this pretty damn clear early on.
Pro can't disable updates, only defer.
And the fact that currently my home internet is downloading at 0.5mbs it makes my pc unusable when I want to actually use it.
Not liking this feature.
Indeed, kinda annoying, both the internet and the Windows update issue
Weird, because windows update is a low priority and should not prevents you from using your web browser for example.
No but if it's downloading in the background already, trying to download something else is annoying. Also a lot of web pages aren't exactly low on data anymore, auto playing videos high resolution images etc.
Sounds like you are not updating your current system since you don't like WU downloading in the background at all.
Fascism!
Of course. Surely this was expected?
The only question for me is will it happen smoothly in the background, without slowing me down or interrupting me, so long as which I don't care.
I imagine it will be the same as 8/8.1
As long as they can be uninstalled.
And they are automatically installed again the next day.
Maybe its because they want manufacturers to have more control over the updates?
manufacturers won't have any control over updates. The reason for this auto-updates has more to do with app developers being able to target the latest APIs
Can't select Windows update, but I think home user still can stop the update with selecting the Wi-Fi as limited connection.
The way I read it is you can't turn off updates to the "Windows Update" program itself, which is perfectly acceptable I would have thought? For example, if MS are doing big updates via Windows Updates (ie Windows 10.1) and the old version of Windows Update can't install it, it won't offer you the update, until it itself can install it, so needs to automatically update itself, and then notify you that it's an update you may wish to install. Simple.
net stop wuauserv
I have observed many people disabling Windows update on their systems and never update their OS. Never could understand why would people do such stuff.
Limited data connections maybe?
For homes with more then one PC of the same os id suggest installing wsus. did this to cut down on redownloading same updates more then once. To bad this feature requires pro 10
DJ's frequently turn Windows Update off... Seen countless screen shots of those that don't and laptops restarting mid gig to "install important updates"... OK, yes, they should've have turned it off in the first place, but... if there is no longer an option then how many more "real time" uses could get interrupted? I always use Pro and therefore should not face this option, but most laptops come with Home installed. Hopefully with in place upgrades for 10 this will become less of an issue...
If the DJs were semi tech savy then they would install the updates on Update Tuesday like how most professional companies do. I remember I interviewed for a company and they had a guy who came in every Tuesday evening and spent the entire night updating their servers with the latest updates. ITS THAT IMPORTNANT PPL! Either that or the DJ can have his computer wiped during his "gig" due to malware that was patched a month ago but oh wait, he turned off updates.
If you guys have been using the technical preview, then you should know that Windows update worked exactly as described in the article for quite some time.
The preview is a different story, people opted-in. This is enforced on users across a tier.
That does not make it a good thing, and not everyone is using the tech preview so the article is still useful.
As long as it does not force a restart ... the worst thing in windows ever ...
Any time I've seen a restart be forced I have been able to postpone it. It should be up to you to plan accordingly and postpone it to a point where you can save your work and then restart. It's not like a restart takes long anymore.
Sorry Team 9999 ping windows autoshit activate
Really? Going pro.
It's about time. Hopefully the update files are a lot smaller.
this is available since windows 8. Only windows 8 pro have the option to change the windows update settings.
You're mistaken my friend. I use Windows 8/8.1 and I have the option to disable or delay it.
Exactly Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Another reason not to update to Windows 10, unless you have the Pro version. In recent months Microsoft seems to be adopting more and more troublesome practices, be it with privacy and mandatory participation in their improvement program when you want to use Cortana, or this most recent forced updates down users throat practice.
Probably based on "telemetry" data, which shows everyone wants to install updates asap.... :(. When infact it's primarily the group of users, who think removing the bloatware from their PC will break it lol.
i also want to install updates ASAP but Realtime Online Game has priority over some updates
That would be a very stupid reason not to update, then again if you are part of the morons that stuck to 7, can't really expect any better... Of all the major tech companies, Microsoft has one of the best and clearest privacy policies, mostly because they don't actually NEED your data to sell it to third parties or display ads. Cortana is a server-based service, that's how it works so fast on even the lowliest phones and tablets, and for that it has to send part or all of what you ask it to process it in the cloud, and given their unified privacy policies, it requires the Improvement Program one, which lets you know Cortana will send some information of your usage to their server. The forced updates is not that big of a deal either. If you are a power user, you already have them set up for a convenient hour like 3 am. If you aren't, now you wont have an excuse to not install them, solving most of the problems average users run into security, stability and compatibility wise.
If you are a power user you are not stupid enoght to install updates day one only to find it fucked up something with your system, its not like that never happened, especially in 2014 with several bad updates. Accesing the cloud is one thing, and it has nothing to do with forcing you to join their Improvement Program, so they can use you data in whatever way they want to "improve" the service. Also forcing you to have your GPS antenna always-on on your Windows Phone to use Cortana at all even for aspects that have nothing to do with mapping or your location is just stupid on so many levels least of which is battery drain. And just because Microsoft has a "clear" privacy policy does not say anything about its actual content, of course they are better then google or facebook, but thats not a very high standard to beat.
This is a smart practice, not a troublesome one. The idea is to keep users on the same tier so that security levels are the same across the board. Makes it easier to manage security threats. Also, having it out there on all home PCs helps to ensure that patches won't break something when businesses install.
Yeah because it's ok to break something on your home system when a patch goes wrong. /s It's best to always wait a few weeks to install patches if you don't want to have issues when they do come up and a patch needs to be pulled or fixed.\
Updates will go to insiders first, fast and slow ring. Then if no major bugs are found to a small subset of people followed by a general rollout. By the time they get to you it will have gone through lots of testing. The fact that not everyone upgrades at the same time and are running different versions of the OS and not all the latest patches is more like to break something. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Speaking of updates, for some reason I can't manually check for and install updates on my sp3. It says that those settings are controlled by the system administrator even though I am the administrator. I am the only one who uses it and I only have one account on it. It runs windows 8.1. Any ideas on how to fix it
That is aggravating and one of the annoying things about 8. There is a super admin account which is hidden (somewhat disabled). I would recommend you disable it / hide it again after you have done changing the settings etc.
I can understand why they are doing this however unless they have fixed the issues often caused by generic drivers on laptops / tablets as 9/10 I have had to roll back. I'm hesitant to recommend anyone upgrade to home over pro.
Right now I'm intermittently getting crashes when running graphical intensive applications on my AMD card, thanks to the generic intel graphics driver pushed through WU (installing it manually from intel's website has never had any problems...). Uninstalling it unfortunately has made things worse random screen flickering and not mention it has corrupted my and card drivers too T____T. The only saving grace is that my laptop runs 7 Pro.
Sounds like you don't really know what you are doing then... Uninstalling one driver has no effect on the other, you might want to double check your graphic settings and the stuff you installed manually. Besides, its Windows 7. Unlike 8, 8.1 and 10, slow and crashing is expected behavior.
This is good for the average consumer (my father :D). But they should at least give the option to not automaticaly install the drivers. We all know it happens pretty often when Nvidia decides a driver is completed :)
Windows 7 rulz
Lmao, Windows 7 is pointless in today's world. Windows 10 destroy Windows 7 in literally every way. For speed and compatibility with all programs out there and new programs to come alone is a great enough reason to never use 7 again. Let alone the waaaaay better security, Windows 7 users often made the mistake of thinking it was secure enough that they didn't need an antivirus program, while windows 8 proved antivirus programs were no longer necessary, and windows 10 took it further and is even better protection than OSX's native and popular 3rd party solutions!
Who said antivirus no longer required?? I heard this type of shit from wc and my window 8.1 turned into a virus infected machine
Windows has a built in antivirus program, if you had an3rd party antivirus program you would have been just as likely to get viruses. That isn't Microsoft fault there. I'm sorry to say this, and you probably wont like it, but viruses can't just be gotten willy nilly. They start somewhere and the user that received them had to initiate it some how. It could have been looking at porn(biggest virus market), opening and email, clicking on a ad that was a virus and wasn't real, downloading a program you thought was legit, letting programs that are installing add all the extras that are in the installation process sometimes. Etc. Anything could have led to you getting viruses. I've never gotten a virus on a Windows 8 PC, and that is how most consumers have experienced it since it is so heavily defended. I'm sorry that you had that experience but it isn't normal and you just have to be careful regardless of what antivirus program you are using.
Windows 7 is pointless in today's world. As of June 2015, Win7 has 60.98% market share. Meanwhile Win8 and Win8.1 put togather has a market share of 16.02%. Also, neither 7 or 8/8.1 is foolproof against virus attacks. An idiot can easily get a 8/8.1 pc infected, while I never had any such issues on my 5 year old Win7 pc.
"my window 8.1 turned into a virus infected machine" That's your fault, not Windows fault. I was years without anti-virus, and never had an issue. I only run one now because my company requires it for me to telecommute.
Didn't we already know this as a fact? I think it's good too, it means safety for more people (something similar to vaccinations).
Yep more safety! Less nonunderstanding consumers turning off the whole point of Windows going forward: ie. Consistent upgrades.
Those of us who pay attention to more than one source knew it. Mary Jo Foley, for one, has been saying it for months.
About gosh darn time! This is needed. People need to get off their high horses, and let Microsoft actually distribute it's products properly. Updates are designed for a reason, and consumers dont need the added confusion of being able to disable them and then thei computers messing up since they made a poor choice. Modern applications should always update on their own, especially a consistently evolving one like Windows 10. There should never have been choice in the first time. The only thing they should still do is allow users choose when to install them, just dont let the user deny the install forever.
Yes it's so great to have no choice, and that is exactly why they are giving one to Pro users. /s
You are right it is great, consumers need to realize Windows is now a consistent updating and changing OS it will never stay the same. Users don't need a choice. That is the point of Windows going forward.
Here's why not: I removed Skype from my computer. I don't need it. The Store keeps telling me that there is an update to Skype. If I let the Store automatically update apps I would get Skype back on my system.
This is so old wtf
Way old news
As a web developer this is an absolute godsend.
I'm not concerned with auto-download, nor auto-install for the most part. I'm more concerned with auto-reboot. Was in the middle of a game, and it auto-rebooted, even when I know for a fact I postponed for 4 hours.
Lol, did you play at 3am again?
I could not find any positive reason behind this decision. Kinda weird decision. LOL With this MS actually violating user's rights as well as privacy.
There are positive reasons, just that you don't think those are good reasons. It's nothing weird to reduce the number of unpatched machines that are waiting for malwares to invade. This update practice is stated in the EULA, what user's right are you talking about? If you use Windows 10 Home, you already agree to the EULA. Are you saying there's some human rights issue involved here. This issue is similar to the children vaccine issue. Do you force every kid to be innoculated against contagious diseases?
Very happy about this. Finally stupid users who never update their system, wont have much to complain about Windows being unsafe or unstable, just one more hoop they have to jump to screw themselves over.
Agreed
Wouldn't say they're all 'stupid'. Some people don't really know how to manually update, don't really get around to doing it, or don't even know it happens. Thinking of the older generations here. The majority of Windows users are casual users who want a computer than turns on, and allows them to do things like use Office, browse the web and check their emails. They don't really go looking beyond that.
That's good news.
Always install windows updates, anti spyware tool and stuff.
Will save on support calls and put pressure on small app companies to finally keep their apps updated.
Could be 1 more reason I will leave at least two machines with w7.
but windows 7 ultimate which costs like 20 dollars now. the upgrade to pro. done deal.
Where exactly have you seen it for $20, lol.
Ultimate is going for about $50 on ebay, pro's even cheaper. Win 7's price is crashing right now. Good time to buy if you're in the market.
I'm sure there will be an option to only download the updates via Wi-Fi I heard there are only two Windows 10 editions for PC, Windows 10 and Windows 10 Pro What is Windows 10 Home which is written in this article's title
windows 10 home is windows 10 without pro its called windows 10 home
It's just 'basic' Windows 10 for PC. The only reason they're adding 'Home' to it is because there will be a number of different variants of Windows 10 (Mobile, Pro, Home, Enterprise etc.) and this means this 'standard ' variant can be specified easier.
Happened to stumble upon the old control panel in July iso. Guessing enterprise will have access. Whats the point of wsus then
Tch, this sounds cumbersome, when users complain, MS will change their way, just like when people complain with Windows 8 at first without Start Menu
They can't afford to fark up this time
Yes, they shouldn't, Windows 10 could be the next big thing if done right Posted via the Windows Central App for BlackBerry
Great way to cause a backlash before your OS release. Some of you might be happy about this, but wait till a Samsung Android into your computer to charge. My cousin did that on one of the builds I had and that update shiat kept looking and looking for the driver even when the phone was unpluged.
Which one of you typed this? Jekyll, or Hyde? Either way, could one of you ask the other to retype this, it's goddamned awful.
This is a bit different, this is about Windows Update and the security/feature updates it brings, not a new connected device prompting driver installs.
Old news, but WU wanted to install outdated drivers so often it will be really annoying if you can't stop it from doing so.
I think that is quite good. I can't remember how often I had to "fix" PCs from family and friends. In most cases, all I did was to go to the control panel and install the "97" important updates to solve all kinds of problems. Yes, for the advances user, this might be annoying, but as advanced user, I use the Pro version of any OS anyway. The average user has little knowledge about the actual system, so not relying on them to do what they should do without them knowing why in order to keep the OS stable is a good move in my books.
I also remember times when I had to fix my PCs, or a friend's, or a family member after they received an update gone awry and the PC blue screened at startup. Or what about updates that fail to install because of a problem with the update and Windows Update keeps getting them?
That must have been during the XP days....... Embrace windows 10 let the past go.
Wrong... Windows 7 and even 8.1.
I have 7 windows 7 and 8.1 machines in my house, and countless others that my friends occasionally asked me questions about. I have never run into a situation that the PC blue screened at startup because of windows update. All the blue screens that I have seen were caused by hardware problems.
I thought this was already well known? Confirmed for months now?
This is supposed to sell itself as the premiere site for Windows news. Is this seriously the first article on this matter from Windows Central? I'd be surprised if that's the case. How could WINDOWS Central not have addressed this previously? What's next, and article that there's going to be a unified app store? And article that it's a free upgrade?
What are we talking about. Update is usulay as massive as 5min youtube clip. If you are using 33.6kbps modem, yes you are in trouble... otherwise just enjoy 21 century.
Thank you for giving attention to this WC. Actually you can't configure much with the pro version of 10240 either. This is the one and only deal breaker for me which will force me to stay on 8.1 (a great OS nevertheless). I can't understand what they are thinking. Not being able to hide driver updates which can cause systems to not even boot is such a bad move. I never update my drivers if the hardware works as expected. Old drivers are rarely a security risk.
I guarantee an admin can disable BITS in the services menu.
BITS can be disabled but if your computer is shuts down and restarts it will enable itself
Yes, it happens. The question is what happens more often. And while there see some issues with updates, I would say there are far more issues due to a lack of updates being installed.
I just found out there's a way to disable force installation of drivers, if someone's interested. Don't know if this is possible with the home version. This screenshot shows how http://www.tenforums.com/attachments/windows-updates-activation/19170d14...
I really hope this works.
Thank you for the tip. They still have this option in the 10240 built.
MS is offering FREE Windows 10 Upgrade..........well, we don't know exactly what the fine print reads, we know one of them. But I personally like to download updates when I can, I don't want my pc downloading updates while I'm working on something else, it makes my pc very slow. Let me choose when, got it.
This is very bad for some people I know who are having serious troubles with WU. Windows keeps updating and rolling back everytime people turns off/restarts them. MS should not forget they are giving away SP3 for free to TV (and radio) stars that are also having these kind of problems while on the air. There's a lot of things you don't like to hear, like someone advising "Ipad's don't make you update that often, you know?"
This is perfect. :) other than the "Indian" comment above (which, ironically, made me think of Peter Pan- How, chief? HOW?! ;)), this will ensure stable upgrades for users and an ecosystem that is the same across the board. Business, of course, is completely different. But awesome! ;)
Unless of course an update actually breaks something.
having control over your OS is now a pro exclusive feature? MS can't make any significant improvements without tacking on pointless restrictions like this.
Good. They get so many viruses and never update there computers.
On my Windows 10 tp the system update always fails as I have a 512 kbps connection