Is Automatic Download, but On Demand Update, possible?

I am a well educated, but not particularly tech savvy, PC user of many years, but have been frustrated with Windows update issues for some time now, in respect of which I have looked at this forum for a solution, but been unable to find one.

Whenever I receive updates, the process finishes with the PC restarting automatically, and the following things always happen................

1) I lose all of the tabs that I had open in any Browsers at the time
2) All Word, and Excel, documents in Microsoft Office that are open, close, and have to be recovered from 'Unsaved Files' - some of the files show a date, in the recovery pane, of 10/01/1601 00:00 (whatever that is supposed to mean!)

This is most annoying, and time consuming, especially with the Browser closures, as I often cannot recall the details of all of the previously open tabs.

However, usually when my PC 'locks' itself, and I have to hard reboot it, I am offered the option in my Chrome browser to reinstate closed tabs, so why can this not be applied to all Windows updates, in a similar manner?

Alternatively, in previous operating systems, I seem to recall that I was able to select a facility, whereby I was presented with the option of delaying updates, in order to continue working with my open documents, until I chose to save them properly, or close them as appropriate - I believe that this automatically Downloaded any updates, but did not Update, until manually instructed to do so.

Is this facility available buried somewhere within Windows 10, or is it simply not possible, without turning updates off altogether, which is not good management?

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...a.html#option1
Scroll down to 6. To Set Windows Update to Notify before Downloading and Installing any Updates

Matthew Wai said:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...a.html#option1
Scroll down to 6. To Set Windows Update to Notify before Downloading and Installing any Updates

Hi Mathew,

Thanks for your prompt reply.
I have followed your link as above, and can see only 5 Options.

I presume that you are referring to Option One, instructions section 6, which seems to be applicable.

Unfortunately, I have Windows 10 Home Edition.

Under 'To Enable or Disable Automatic Updates using Group Policy - a note reads"This option is not available and will not work in Windows 10 Home. Microsoft has prevented disabling automatic updates in the Home edition"

I have tried to 'Open the Local Group Policy Editor.' as per Option One, Section 1, of the instructions, which returns the screen message ......


I seem to be unable to follow this routine, unless I am doing something wrong of coutse!

An further suggestions please?


Windows Update Automatic Updates - Enable or Disable in Windows 10Windows Update Automatic Updates - Enable or Disable in Windows 10

kokinoman said:

Unfortunately, I have Windows 10 Home Edition.0

Fortunately, I have Windows 10 Home Edition too, and I have used this option to disable auto-update and use VBScript to make it automatically check for updates and just notify me when updates are available, as mentioned in this post.

kokinoman said:

Unfortunately, I have Windows 10 Home Edition.

I have Home. Like Mathew, I set my connection set as metered. I'm not sure why Mathew needs his vbscript, I still seem to get notifications that 'updates are available but there was a problem downloading them'. Usually though I don't wait long enough to see them, I check for updates myself in Settings/Update & security. I only get the notification if I've not done so for a while.

The one downside of a metered connection is that Defender no longer automatically updates its definitions. You need to do that yourself, there's an Update tab in Defender where you can do that. If you leave it too long Defender will notify you that it needs to be done.

Bree said:

I'm not sure why Mathew needs his vbscript

Because the VBScript, run by Task Scheduler, will automatically do the following for me and notify me only when updates are available.

Bree said:

I check for updates myself in Settings/Update & security.

Bree said:

The one downside of a metered connection is that Defender no longer automatically updates its definitions. You need to do that yourself,

I need not do that myself because I have another VBScript scheduled to update definitions every six hours.

Also, the first VBScript can automatically update definitions too, but only once a day.