Simplified Windows Update settings for end users
Published Jun 29 2020 03:51 PM 40.1K Views
Microsoft

With the rollout of Windows 10, version 1903, we gave customers control over when to take feature updates. As noted in Mike Fortin’s April 2019 blog on Improving the Windows 10 update experience with control, quality and transparency, feature updates are no longer offered automatically unless a device is nearing its end of service and therefore must update to stay secure. The purpose of this post is to discuss how Windows 10, version 2004 simplifies Windows Update settings further and to clarify how you can control when to take feature updates.

First, until you approach end of service, you no longer need to configure any settings in order to stay on your current version of Windows 10. This change enables you to remain on any given release for a longer duration, taking a feature update approximately once a year or less depending on which edition of Windows 10 your device is running. Additionally, prior to approaching end of service, you have complete control over when to download and install the latest Windows 10 feature update from the Windows Update Settings page, as shown below:

How a Windows 10 feature update is offeredHow a Windows 10 feature update is offered

The ability to remain on your current version until you choose to download and install the latest feature update or until approaching end of service is only possible when deferrals are not set for the device. To date, some of you have leveraged, and continue to leverage, deferrals to delay feature updates. While deferrals can be a great way to roll out updates in waves to a set of devices across an organization, setting deferrals as an end user might now have some unintended consequences. Deferrals work by allowing you to specify how many days after an update is released before it is offered to your device. For example, if you configure a feature update deferral of 365 days, you will be offered every feature update 365 days after it has been released. However, given that we release Windows10 feature updates semi-annually, if you configure a feature update deferral of 365 days, your device will install a new feature update every six months, twice as often as an end user who has not configured any settings.

To try and prevent these unintended consequences and enable you to stay with a given release of Windows 10 for the longest duration, beginning with Windows 10, version 2004, we no longer display deferral options on the Windows Update Settings page under Advanced options. This ensures that you have control over, and visibility into, exactly when to install the latest Windows 10 feature update until you near end of service. The ability to set deferrals has not been taken away, it is just no longer being displayed on the Settings page.

If you want to leverage deferrals to install a feature update semi-annually a given number of days after its release, you can continue to do so by leveraging Local Group Policy. Deferral settings can be found in the Windows Update for Business folder in Local Group Policy Editor. To access this folder, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Windows Update for Business. Within the Windows Update for Business folder, you will see options for “Select when Preview builds and Feature Updates are received” and “Select when Quality Updates are received", which enable you to defer feature updates, monthly quality updates, or both.

Windows Update for Business settings in the Local Group Policy EditorWindows Update for Business settings in the Local Group Policy Editor

Finally, it is important to note that this change does not impact IT administrators who utilize mobile device management (MDM) tools or Group Policy management tools to set deferrals in order to do validation and roll out feature updates in planned waves across their organization.

I hope this post clears up any questions you may have about this change in Windows 10, version 2004. If you are an IT admin and looking for detailed information on using Windows Update for Business to keep the Windows 10 devices in your organization always up to date with the latest security defenses and Windows features, see our Windows Update for Business documentation.

 

14 Comments
Copper Contributor
The ability to remain on your current version until you choose to download and install the latest feature update or until approaching end of service is only possible when deferrals are not set for the device.

What happens if I update a device with deferral settings from 1909 or earlier to 2004?
There is no way to revert to default setting anymore.

Iron Contributor

@Aria Carley wrote:

To try and prevent these unintended consequences and enable you to stay with a given release of Windows 10 for the longest duration, beginning with Windows 10, version 2004, we no longer display deferral options on the Windows Update Settings page under Advanced options. This ensures that you have control over, and visibility into, exactly when to install the latest Windows 10 feature update until you near end of service. The ability to set deferrals has not been taken away, it is just no longer being displayed on the Settings page.


This looks like a poor design decision. For one thing, removing controls does not "ensure that [I] have control". For another, these explanations still do not justify the removal of the deferral controls for the monthly updates.

 

If it was me, I'd leave the controls to be, and added a "Maximum" item to the drop-down list that controlled the feature update deferral. This "Maximum" item would enact the behavior that this article explains. But then again, if it was me, I'd have resolved the problem in the source by ensuring that updates have such quality that nobody needs deferring them in the first place.

Brass Contributor

How is this refleced in the MDM policies for Windows Update for Business in Intune?

In the "Windows 10 Update Rings" configuration profile you have to put in a deferral period (Feature update deferral period (days)). 

Does it have to be a 0 to deactivate the deferrals for feature updates?

How does it play together with the "Windows 10 feature updates (Preview)" profile?

 

 

Copper Contributor

As per above, I’m also interested to see how this fits/works within the existing Update(s) related options via Intune.

Brass Contributor

Here's what Microsoft should do with feature updates:

  • Release one feature update per year
  • Each feature update should be in service for 30 months
  • Each feature update should be installed using the same servicing technology they used for the 1903 to 1909 release
  • For the enterprise, never automatically install a feature update without giving complete control over when and through what method the organization wants to update their estate. If they fall out of support, that's on them.
Brass Contributor

@Aria Carley . Please check these sentences again in your post...

 

For example, if you configure a feature update deferral of 365 days, you will be offered every feature update 365 days after it has been released.

 

if you configure a feature update deferral of 365 days, your device will install a new feature update every six months, twice as often as an end user.

Both are giving same meaning

Iron Contributor

@win32_lean_and_meanI asked the same question from Microsoft Support. They say the Group Policy Editor and the Settings app in 1909 and earlier stored their deferral settings in different places in Registry. The one that the Group Policy Editor stored always took precedence. Now, the location that the Settings app used is ignored. Also, during the update to 20H1, those settings get deleted.

Copper Contributor

I have my own way and it serves me well. I decide what happens and when. Works like a charm. I don't have to worry about a stable system becoming a hot mess.

 

https://www.sordum.org/9470/windows-update-blocker-v1-5/

https://wpd.app/

Copper Contributor

"we no longer display deferral options on the Windows Update Settings page under Advanced options. This ensures that you have control over, and visibility into, exactly when to install the latest Windows 10 feature update until you near end of service. The ability to set deferrals has not been taken away, it is just no longer being displayed on the Settings page."

"Local Group Policy Editor"

So let me get this straight, by removing the option and forcing it into Group Policy Editor, something only Windows 10 Pro and higher have (without modifying the OS), you are giving the users control over when  to install the latest Windows 10 feature update?

This contradicts itself like mad. This is also a move that Apple would do.

Microsoft, you are now telling your users that they are too dumb to control when updates can be installed on there systems. Given the recent issues with feature updates, this is just going to cause major issues.

Congratulations, you made me compare you to Apple and it's actually a BAD thing.

Copper Contributor
@Nethaniel wrote:

Congratulations, you made me compare you to Apple and it's actually a BAD thing.


Yeah... beyond bad even. Totally unacceptable. 

Deleted
Not applicable

 

 

Copper Contributor

@RAJUMATHEMATICSMSCThe two sentences are not in conflict.  Deferral of 365 days is after the release of a given version:

365 days after the release of 1809, the PC installs 1809

365 days after the release of 1903, the PC installs 1903

365 days after the release of 1909, the PC installs 1909

The new default (no deferral) as I understand it ends up upgrading once per year:

16-18 months after the release of 1809, the PC installs the then-current version (1909) in spring 2020

16-18 months after the release of 1909, the PC installs the then-current version (2009) in spring 2021

 

Left unclear is how to turn it off, to revert to the default.  I have read setting DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays to 0 reverts to the default behavior but my testing with PSWindowsUpdate seems inconsistent:

DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays = 150: feature update 2004 not detected

DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays = 0: feature update still not detected

DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays = 1: feature update IS detected

DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays = 0: feature update IS STILL detected

Delete DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays: feature update IS STILL detected

DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays = 300: feature update is no longer detected

DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays = 0: feature update still not detected

Copper Contributor

Put deferred updates back the way that it was please. Being able to control deferring security updates and feature updates in a simple UI made sense. If you count the number of people that were affected negatively by a simple UI nested 3 layers deep vs the number of people affected negatively by a windows update gone wrong. I would think that the later number would be larger. For those using the deferral UI, a 16 day delay on security updates and a 60 day delay on feature updates does not create a user problem.

Copper Contributor

So hiding the Windows Update settings is simplifying them for Microsoft. This is an interesting concept effectively taken from Apple for the Mac.

I assume it is the same for our rights to use a Windows that end-users can manage easily : they are hidden somewhere...

 

By the way, if we wanted Macs, we would not have Windows PCs, which we hope to customize following our needs.

These "simplifications" mainly complexify all this Windows management work.

Version history
Last update:
‎Jun 29 2020 03:51 PM
Updated by: