Well, I guess I am afraid of getting updates as soon as they are offered. So, can we delay this Fall update now scheduled for 17 October?
There are still some who are waiting for the Creators Update to be delivered, so you may not see the Fall Creators Update for some time anyway.
If you have Pro, you can choose to delay Features Updates like the Fall Creators Update. The Creators Update improved these settings, now giving you the option to switch from Current Branch that gets them straight away to the Current Branch for Business which gets them much later.
Windows Update - Defer Feature and Quality Updates in Windows 10
If you are on Home you don't have these options, but you can hide the Features Update once it is offered for your machine.
Hide or Show Windows Updates in Windows 10
Personally I embrace change and manually update as soon as it is available, in the case of the Creators Update that was made available a week ahead of launch through the Update Assistant and the Media Creation Tool.
Of course, as I take the precaution of always having a recent system image for my machine I could always restore that if there was a problem. On this forum we constantly recommend imaging your PC to an external drive as a way to recover from problems, or even from a dead hard drive. Macrium Reflect is what most recommend.
OH...I do have Pro and had used gpedit before. Mine do say Current Branch for Business. I guess that means I can wait.
I also do have full (Macrium Reflect) images in case of issues.
Like @Bree, as soon as a new upgrade is available for download, I grab it and install it manually. Never have had any issues yet, but the dozen computers on my home network all have clean installs of Windows 10 - starting as early as build 10240 all the way to 15063 on various computers. In my experience, the key to successful upgrades is to start with a clean install of Windows 10 and then watch the systems for signs of trouble. Most of my computers started with 10240 and all have upgraded up the Windows 10 path to the current update.
Also, I don't mess with Windows too much. I believe most people have problems with upgrades because there was something wrong with their system before the upgrade that should have been fixed before. And I don't mess around with trying elaborate fixes. I might try a repair install over the top of a problem, but if I am not sure that has restored everything 100%, I just do a clean install. I create junction links in my user profile to divert data files to a second install HDD so my data is fairly safe. And it gets backed up to a NAS periodically. All of my problems requiring re-installs have been because I tinkered with it, though.
It really won't matter. If you have a problem that is going to prevent the update from installing, it will prevent it from installing the day it comes out, or six months after it comes out. I don't clean install every update. I'm just saying that all of my computers have started with a clean install of Windows 10 sometime in the past.
Yes, I think that's the key to a successful upgrade. I have the Start menu customised to my tastes, but only by using the methods Microsoft provides. I avoid tweaking tools and third-party shells. They may work for a while, but it worries me that they may cause unexpected problems further down the line.
My main machine started with an OEM Windows 7. I did a factory reset to get a clean OS, applied all the MS updates then installed my software. That was then successfully upgraded to the initial 10240 release of Windows 10 and has been upgraded to each subsequent version, now running Creators update without a problem.
I agree that third party tools can stop working and they do not have to fix them...like shell or file managers!
I usually wait a while before installing major updates to give MS time to sort out the obvious software bugs which they seem incapable of spotting in their software development. Also, see this post which might make you think twice before installing the Fall Update Bashware: Malware Can Abuse Windows 10's Linux Shell
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