How do you remove the Autopilot update completely?

At various times Microsoft has inadvertently delivered an Autopilot update to all W10 Pro machines, not just those enrolled in Autopilot. Here's the one from December...

Microsoft said:

This update was available through Windows Update. However, we have removed it because it was being offered incorrectly. When an organization registers or configures a device for Windows Autopilot deployment, the device setup automatically updates Windows Autopilot to the latest version.

Note There is no effect on Windows Autopilot being offered to Windows 10 devices. If you were offered this update and do not use Autopilot, installing this update will not affect you. Windows Autopilot update should not be offered to Windows 10 Home.

KB4532441 Cumulative update for Autopilot in Windows 10 1903 and 1909

Back in October they even pushed it onto Home machines, despite saying Home should never have Autopilot!

I have three W10 Pro 1909 machines that got the Autopilot update at various times. It can be uninstalled in Control Panel > Programs and Features > Installed Updates, but despite Microsoft's reassurance that "If you were offered this update and do not use Autopilot, installing this update will not affect you" there is one very visible after-effect of having had it installed, even after it has been uninstalled. Every time updates are installed Windows tells me that Your organisation manages your update settings.



Now this may just be cosmetic, but I can't help worrying what else may be left behind after uninstalling the update. So much so that I have just spent an afternoon reverting one on my machines to a Macrium image from just after its clean install, then recreating all the configuration changes made since then. In particular, my thanks goes to Brink for this tutorial.

Backup and Restore Start Layout in Windows 10

So far two out of three machines have had to go back to an early image in order to remove this annoyance. But for the third that is impractical, there's just too much to reconfigure.


My question: does anyone know where these left-over settings are hiding? I've been through the registry with a fine toothed comb and cannot find any significant differences between a machine that has had the autopilot update and one that has never seen it.

So, it seems no one has any ideas at all?

Pejole2165 said:

I'm not sure it is Autopilot giving that message, I am running 10 Pro, the Autopilot update was installed during the time you mention, I did nothing to it at the time, I'm pretty sure MS released an update shortly afterwards that removed Autopilot from machines it shouldn't be on.
I have the Autopilot folder in Windows\Servicing but it is empty now, no files and no folder tree.
I certainly never uninstalled it myself.
I don't get the message you are getting and in fact have never seen it on this machine.

No, it is quite consistent. All my W10 Pro machines that had the Autopilot update then had the update manually uninstalled straight away. Of course it was not until a month or so later when they needed a restart for a CU that I noticed the extra line appeared on the blue 'Configuring....' screens.

If MS did release an update later to remove their mistake then they did it without telling anyone in a KB. And if they really did, what might it have done on a machine that got the Autopilot update then had it manually uninstalled?

Are you sure you haven't set something in group policy that might result in the message?

The only group policy in place is to 'notify for download...'. That is in place on all my Pro machines but only those that mistakenly received the Autopilot update showed the Your organisation manages your update settings message.

Anyway, the wording is different from the "Some settings are managed by your organisation" produced when you set group policies. Also, the messages for group policies would appear on the relevant page of the Settings app, not on the restart screens.

Of the three machines that had the Autopilot update I have had to take two back to a Macrium image from before the Autopilot update in order to get rid of this. That inevitably involved quite a lot of reconfiguring afterwards. For the third machine that is just too much work to be practical, so I'd like to find and remove the registry keys responsible.