Not giving me an option to refuse 21H1

Frank O said:

...Any idea why this is happening? I have several other Win Pro 19041 systems that aren't being bugged to accept this update....

A Feature Update remains optional until at or near end of support for your current version. 2004 (19041) reaches end of support on Dec 14, 2021. Past experience has shown that MS regard three months as near enough to end of support to start the forced roll out to some machines, gradually ramping up the rollout to include all machines once end of support is reached. Machines running Home tend to be earlier than Pro to receive a forced update.

If you cannot avoid the update and it installs, first check to see if your fears about the sound issues were justified. There have been a lot of cumulative updates since 21H1 was released and the issues may have been fixed by now.

If not, it is easy to uninstall the update. All the 21H1 features are already in your system files, but are dormant until a small enablement package is installed. There is no big update to download and no Windows.old folder created, just a few dormant features enabled in your existing system. You can uninstall the enablement package to revert to your previous system.

Frank O said:

Thanks, that's very clear.... I guess I'll check the forums related to my sound apps to see if there's any more recent word on 21H1 issues. If no red flags, then set a restore point, let it do the update, and check for problems. Good to know about the uninstall capability.

Good plan. Rather than relying on Sytem Restore, I prefer to make a sytem image with Macrium Reflect Free before upgrading.

Let us know (and those on your sound apps forums) how it goes for you.

Frank O said:

Good idea -- I actually have Macrium Reflect paid, so making an image will be easy.

Start using Windows Automatic Update Manager

Enable or Disable Windows Update Automatic Updates in Windows 10 | Tutorials (tenforums.com)

Option 7