Thank you PKCano for these instructions for clearing the windows update queue, I hope it is ok for me to post here and share some more information, otherwise maybe a moderator can move this post to an appropriate place. I have had good luck using the instructions offered my the Major Geeks website for re-naming the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder to .old, after stopping the Windows Update Service, and then deleting that folder – SoftwareDistribution. Note that after doing that my update history in the Settings App was empty, but in Control Panel Installed Updates still showed some. Anyway, the following links are offered for educational information, and may be useful to some people.

https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/how_to_delete_pending_windows_updates.html

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/11/16/how-to-delete-downloaded-windows-update-files/

How To Clear Windows Update Cache In Windows 10

3 users thanked author for this post.

tjm1963, Berserker79, CYinVT

PK, should metered connections be turned on all the time?

PK,

Is this advice here still valid for Win 10?  I’m asking because the link that you provided for downloading wushowhide doesn’t go to that utility anymore.  The link goes to an MS page for their “Windows Update Troubleshooter” — which doesn’t appear to function the same as  wushowhide.

Is wushowhide still supported on Win 10?  If so, where would someone go to download a current copy of it?

Considering there have been several changes since this topic started and PKCano gave us the excellent advice on controlling the updates, how about an updated version? Pause? Dont pause(new to me in ver 1903 pro…stop pause, and dl and install commences immediately. So now that I have pause enabled for 35 days, how to keep ms from pushing and installing whatever is out there? What other settings do we need to address (again) as installing win1903 seems to have changed them…I depend on Woody to let us know when to go for it BUT I do not know what msft has in store for me because of the PAUSE condition.

Thanks!

D

Actually, This should be in a different topic. I favorited this one from a different topic having to do with patching, controlling updates etc and PKCano referred to this post. I believe it was a topic for ver 1803 or perhaps 1809 but here we are in 1903/1909 which are quite different…sorry for the misstep. In any case what is the best way to control the update process in pro and home versions 1903?

• This reply was modified 1 week, 3 days ago by  DriftyDonN.

I’ve read the post by @cyclical01 here

I, too, do best when following checklists.

I’ve read “The Guide for Windows Update Settings for Windows 10”, and am asking about the section “These are the settings I use”,
The steps come in this order:
1) set the deferrals and
2) set the Group Policy Editor>Automatic Windows Update to #2.

The next step is where I have a question: It’s about the order of things that come next.
a) Do you always first follow directions in ABK2000013, which includes wushowhide?
OR
b) Do you first use wushowhide by itself, and THEN IF the ones you think you have hidden still appear in the queue, you use the directions in ABK2000013, which include using wushowhide again?

Having switched from my Win7 device to Win10 exclusively last month, I’ve started using the steps in “The Guide” only three weeks ago for my two 1909 devices, and I have only become familiar with using wushowhide about two weeks ago. I just realized recently that there is an AKB2000013, too. I have hidden two of the three Feb 11 Patch Tuesday updates (first hiding, but later unhiding the 3rd one, the MSRT update). I haven’t seen anything in the queue that was supposed to have been hidden but shows up anyway, but maybe I’ve just been lucky, not having known about the steps in AKB2000013.

I think I could better construct my checklist and the order of things, if I knew the answer to my question above.

This 2nd question is more along the lines of when to clear the Windows Update queue in Win10, rather than how.

In my short experience with this, I noticed once that there were two notifications on the Windows Update screen at the same time, but only one “Download” button The first update listed was a Defender update and the second one was MSRT, which I had unhidden earlier But, as I say there was only one “Download” button. When I clicked on it, the first one (the Defender update) disappeared from the list; I checked Update History and it was listed there as having been installed. And now there was the MSRT update listed by itself and still the “Download” button. So, I clicked on the “Download” button again and the MSRT was no longer listed. I then checked Update History and IT was listed there as having been installed.
i) So, is this true — that you will sometimes have more than one update listed and only one “Download” button? In this case, the first click on “Download” button will download the first update listed and the second click on the “Download” button will download the 2nd update listed, and so on? Or is this a special case, because one of the updates was a Defender update?

ii) and is this true — if I want to download the 2nd one, but not the first, I will have to use the directions in AKB2000013 to remove the 1st one, so that when I click on the “Download” button, I will be downloading and installing only the 2nd one that was listed?

iii) could it ever happen that if I had two or more updates listed on the Windows Update screen and I clicked on the one “Download” button, all three would be downloaded and installed one after the other, with no further intervention on my part (i.e. no “Download” button to click on a 2nd time or a 3rd time)?

And if for some reason, I wanted to have control over the sequence, I would have to use AK2000013 to remove the two that I didn’t want to download and install so that the remaining one would be the one to go first, then wait for Windows Update to add the other two, then use AK2000013 to remove the one that I didn’t want to go 2nd, then wait for Windows Update to add the 3rd one, which would go last?

I had expected that each update would have its own “Download” button, but this seems not to be the case.