Can't Defer Feature Updates in v1903 Windows 10 Pro?

Steve C · 24 Jun 2019

How do I defer Feature Updates only in v1903? I used to be able to defer these for up to 365 days. I only see these options:

dalchina · 24 Jun 2019

It's a bit worrying, if you worry about such things. However, Group Policy can still ride to your rescue. But worry not, you're not alone, as a quick search reveals:

Windows 10 1903: the case of the missing update deferral options - gHacks Tech News

And a thought- with the introduction of the 'Download and install' option, is a deferral option really needed? Thinking further, if you set that for 365 days such that the 365 days period concluded at a date beyond end of life, would that override MS's policy of applying a feature update at end of life of a build?

Bree · 24 Jun 2019

Steve C said:

How do I defer Feature Updates only in v1903? I used to be able to defer these for up to 365 days.

dalchina said:

It's a bit worrying, if you worry about such things. However, Group Policy can still ride to your rescue. But worry not, you're not alone, as a quick search reveals:

Windows 10 1903: the case of the missing update deferral options - gHacks Tech News

Your gHacks article seems to worry that it's a sign MS are planning to remove it. Actually it is a bug that in 1903 if you set a non-zero number of days to defer feature and/or quality updates, then that option will disappear from Settings - not immediately, at the next check for updates (still not fixed as of 18362.175). If you had either/both set before the upgrade to 1903 they would already be invisible. I tested that here and show how to bring them back here:

Bree said:

...The contents of these Windows Update settings pages are only refreshed when you check for updates, either the automatic check or manually. Set a number of days then check for updates will make the option(s) disappear straight away.

Using Regedit to set 'DeferFeaturesUpdatePeriodInDays' or 'DeferQualtyUpdatePeriodInDays' back to zero in the key
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings will make them visible again (after another 'check for updates').

Known issues for Windows 10 May 2019 Update version 1903 - post #67

Bree · 24 Jun 2019

dalchina said:

...if you set that for 365 days such that the 365 days period concluded at a date beyond end of life, would that override MS's policy of applying a feature update at end of life of a build?

It should do.* When you defer a Feature Update you are deferring the time that Windows Update will detect and offer the Feature Update. The MS policy for automatically applying the update at EoL only seems to apply after WU has detected the feature update and offered the 'Download and install now' option.

* though to test that you'd have to defer for 365 days and leave an 1803 machine running for a year. Even I am not prepared to test that

. I am however prepared to leave my test machine on 1803 without a defer period and see how close to EoL it overrides me ignoring the 'download and install now' offer.

Steve C · 24 Jun 2019

Bree said:

Your gHacks article seems to worry that it's a sign MS are planning to remove it. Actually it is a bug that in 1903 if you set a non-zero number of days to defer feature and/or quality updates, then that option will disappear from Settings - not immediately, at the next check for updates (still not fixed as of 18362.175). If you had either/both set before the upgrade to 1903 they would already be invisible. I tested that here and show how to bring them back here:

Known issues for Windows 10 May 2019 Update version 1903 - post #67

There is some good information in post 3. Setting Defer Quality Updates to a figure higher than zero resulted in no deferral options being shown as stated. How can MS miss such glaring errors?

The registry fix brought back display of deferral.

erpster4 · 09 Nov 2019

It looks like the "missing defer feature updates" option has made a comeback (and stays there) by installing the KB4522355 update for 1903 (build 18362.449) as mentioned by Bree in this post.

Matthew Wai · 10 Nov 2019

Steve C said:

How do I defer Feature Updates only in v1903?

Use option 7 to disable automatic updates: Enable or Disable Windows Update Automatic Updates in Windows 10

sdowney717 · 12 Nov 2019

Here is another program to stop it, unless you know it wont work. It seems to work ok for me on 1903.
Block Windows 10 Updates with StopUpdates10 - gHacks Tech News

It has some interesting things like allowing some kinds of updates and not others, or blocking them all.

erpster4 · 15 Nov 2019

sdowney717 said:

Here is another program to stop it, unless you know it wont work. It seems to work ok for me on 1903.
Block Windows 10 Updates with StopUpdates10 - gHacks Tech News

It has some interesting things like allowing some kinds of updates and not others, or blocking them all.

here's the official link to StopUpdate10's web site rather than having to go thru the ghacks.net site
use the latest version of it and download & run the newest version if having an older one

edit - note: Bitdefender AV and Zone Alarm firewall programs conflict with StopUpdate10 so temporarily turn off real-time protection from these apps before using StopUpdate10 and then re-enable them when done

VBF · 18 Nov 2019

This is mentioned elsewhere, but the Update Deferral problem is fixed in 1909.(Build 18363.476) "out of the box", as it were.

Both Feature and Quality updates may be deferred, "Check for Updates" performed and the values remain as set.
I also tried restarting and checking, and doing it all again, setting both values to zero and non-zero days and back again.

All seems to work as it should and as I'm getting no other issues with 1909, this would seem to be the simplest option