Win10 machines with “Defer feature updates” now getting pushed Creators Update

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There’s a reason why your Win10 1607 PC with “Defer feature updates” is getting pushed onto 1703 — and you aren’t going to like it.

Details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

Tip: If you’re running Win10 Anniversary Update, version 1607, and don’t want to get pushed onto 1703, go into Windows Update and see if “Feature update to Windows 10, version 1703” is waiting download. If so, use wushowhide or a metered connection to block it. If it’s already downloaded and awaiting a reboot, DON’T reboot just yet.

I can confirm that this method worked on my production PC. Per @NetDef:

If the updater shows 1703 still pending a reboot, and you have successfully used wushowhide.diagcab to block it, go to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download and delete ALL subfolders and files in there (but don’t delete the Download folder itself.)

Now at the Start menu, you should have roughly double the count of shutdown options listed.  Half are normal, the other half say something like Update and Restart or Update and Shut down.

Restart the workstation without the Update option.

Now when you recheck updates, the Feature update to 1703 should abort, and no longer be listed as pending.

Brilliant!

[See the full post at: Win10 machines with “Defer feature updates” now getting pushed Creators Update]

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MrBrian

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“C’mon little piggy,” said the shark swimming in the big data pool, “jump right in. I won’t byte ya. I just wanna hear you squeal!”

Well I took the plunge into the murky waters of the Creators Update 1703. The only fecal matter that stuck this time through the wormhole was some new app dreck. “Mixed Reality Portal”, “Paint 3D”, and “View 3D” apps showed up, and as usual, not removable through normal means. I haven’t bothered to take the time to forcibly remove them yet. Interestingly the Start Menu pane survived unchanged and the apps I had been able to forcibly remove didn’t make a reappearance in its app list which only had “Connect” and “Cortana” spoiling things.

I had disconnected from the Internet, sewer that it is, before allowing the update proceed and ended up making a couple of notable changes before I went back on line (yeah I had physically disconnected the internet cable from the computer). Which means I have again disabled “Connected User Experiences and Telemetry”, “Windows Search”, “Geolocation Service”, “Network Connection Broker”, “Connected Devices Platform Service” and all the services in the UnistackSvcGroup since nothing I use is part of the IoT. A few new privacy settings needed switching off as well.

I also changed the “ContentDeliveryAllowed”, a setting I had created and set to zero, back to zero under the registry key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager]
“FeatureManagementEnabled”=dword:00000000
“SilentInstalledAppsEnabled”=dword:00000000
“SoftLandingEnabled”=dword:00000000
“SubscribedContentEnabled”=dword:00000000
“OemPreInstalledAppsEnabled”=dword:00000000
“PreInstalledAppsEnabled”=dword:00000000
“RotatingLockScreenEnabled”=dword:00000000
“RotatingLockScreenOverlayEnabled”=dword:00000000
“SystemPaneSuggestionsEnabled”=dword:00000000
“RotatingLockScreenOverlayVisible”=dword:00000000
“ContentDeliveryAllowed”=dword:00000000

All the rest I had ensured were set to zero long ago were still zero there as well as under the registry key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager\SuggestedApps]
“9E2F88E3.Twitter_wgeqdkkx372wm”=dword:00000000
“AdobeSystemsIncorporated.AdobePhotoshopExpress_ynb6jyjzte8ga”=dword:00000000
“Flipboard.Flipboard_3f5azkryzdbc4″=dword:00000000
“king.com.CandyCrushSodaSaga_kgqvnymyfvs32″=dword:00000000
“Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe”=dword:00000000

HP Compaq 6000 Pro SFF PC / Windows 10 Pro / 22H2
Intel®Core™2 “Wolfdale” E8400 3.0 GHz / 8.00 GB

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Noel Carboni

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Wasn’t this to be expected? Defer never meant for ever.

“There is no Current Branch for Business anymore. And that’s at the crux of the problem.”

If there was a CBB, what version would it now be?

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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b wrote:

Wasn’t this to be expected? Defer never meant for ever.

That’s quite correct. “Defer” used to mean “Wait for CBB.” But now there is no CBB. Microsoft didn’t specifically say that 1703 would roll over machines with “Defer feature updates” checked.

Many folks though they’d be safe for roughly four months. Wrong.

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Great Lake Bunyip, FakeNinja

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I believe the only change is the terminology used: “Current Branch” is now named “Semi-Annual Channel (targeted).” “Current Branch for Business” is now named “Semi-Annual Channel.” “Defer feature updates” should still work as expected; see posts #127307 and #127309.

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woody, ch100, Great Lake Bunyip, AlexEiffel

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That is my understanding too. So now 1703 is the new CBB, to talk in old terms instead of the really bad new terminology of semi-annual channel and the targeted one. I’ll remember that target means what it is: you are the designated target for bugs and other issues of early releases.

So, if that works as it is presented, it works as expected because in effect 1703 is the new CBB (or semi-annual channel release if you prefer), except you might not agree that MS designated 1703 as CBB so early, leaving you no room to breath before being pushed their latest toy or finding it not polished enough yet.

I am not happy at all having to look at that right now for both reasons (I trust Woody’s opinion on the second one). I thought I could have more time to analyze what needs to be retweaked as I was working on other things. So I looked at that wushowhide thing and no, I really don’t feel like having to run that tool every day on many workstations to see if the install appears and then have to hide it. Maybe I will do it for me, but I still find that a big ridiculous hassle, although less than having to put up with an OS install when I don’t want one.

What if you don’t reactivate 1703 for a very long time after hiding it with wushowhide? What happens, do you get security updates as if you were on 1607 LTSB until EOL a year and a half after it got out and then you get a warning no more security patches for you or you move to the next version? The idea could be to always skip one version so then you would have a once a year feature update to the latest CBB (or SAC) when running EOL with current version instead of changing every 6 months.

I received the insider’s newsletter today and they are so excited about their new UI changes and everything. I was just thinking when all you do is change UI all the time and are so excited about it every time, doesn’t that gives the impression that whatever you do is not that great since it doesn’t last more than 6 months before the much better new thing that comes out? Why would I be excited about Creator’s update when Fall Creator’s update is just around the corner and it is so much better?

 

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Noel Carboni

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woody wrote:

Many folks though they’d be safe for roughly four months. Wrong.

They were “safe” for roughly four months. Right.

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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I refer you to the Lounge rules.

Fortran, C++, R, Python, Java, Matlab, HTML, CSS, etc.... coding is fun!
A weatherman that can code

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How on earth do you discern my comment to be a personal attack (since there was no swearing, politics or religion)?

A contrasting point of view does in no way amount to “personal” OR “attack”.

From Woody’s Rules post: “Dissenting opinions welcome – encouraged!”

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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By definition, your post accused Woody of being a liar.  That’s a pretty clear case of “personal attack” if there ever is one.  We know you’re incredibly desperate to defend W10, but I should think that you could at least do so without regularly calling the owner of the website (and everyone who agrees with him) a liar.

Fortran, C++, R, Python, Java, Matlab, HTML, CSS, etc.... coding is fun!
A weatherman that can code

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As Woody welcomes and encourages dissenting opinions, I don’t think he would regard that as a personal attack. If I think he’s wrong, shouldn’t I be allowed to point that out?

1703 was released on April 5th. The “roughly four months” has passed and so the deferment period has expired.

I’m not desperate to defend Windows 10. I just feel that most posters on this site, Woody included, criticize Microsoft for all the wrong reasons.

I would never defend their lack of useful information, stupid error codes, broken help links, failure to update articles, and constant renaming of everything for no good reason.

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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AlexEiffel

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@b

1703 was released on April 5th. The “roughly four months” has passed and so the deferment period has expired.

Win 10 Creators Update was released on 11 April 2017 and not April 5th, …
https://www.askwoody.com/2017/win10-machines-with-defer-feature-updates-now-getting-pushed-creators-update/
.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15104512/microsoft-windows-10-creators-update-release-date-april-11th

Seems, you are subconsciously being pro-M$ by adding 6 days to the time interval between the release date and CBB designation date(27 July) for Creators Update.
… If exactly 4 months, it should have been 11 Aug 2017 for CBB designation date.
In this case, it’s actually 3 1/2 months, and not roughly 4 months.

Probably, M$ purposely scheduled the CBB designation date at 2 weeks before the 4-months due date, in order to catch Win 10 users who have “Defer feature updates” off-guard since most of them would have only paid attention to the impending feature-update for Creators Update about 1 week before the 4-month due date and taken appropriate “defensive” actions.

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My 1703 on Current Branch was installed on April 5th when Update Assistant and ISOs became available:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Version_1703_.28Creators_Update.29

http://www.redmondpie.com/download-windows-10-update-assistant-for-creators-update/

http://www.redmondpie.com/download-iso-windows-10-creators-update-1703-build-15063-released/

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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@ b

We are talking about M$’s official release date and the CBB designation date for Win 10 Creators Update, and not when you “disobediently” installed it with the ISO(Win 10 Insider Build.?) or designated it as your own CBB.

Don’t install our buggy Windows 10 Creators Update, begs Microsoft
We’ll give it to you when it’s ready – and it is not

.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/26/stop_downloading_win10_creators_update/

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Fair ’nuff. We tend to look at things a bit differently.

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This kinda goes hand in hand with my frustration earlier in finding out that ADMX templates have been pushed out for every 10 version so far.
MS clearly does not care anymore; they just keep changing the rules and gaming the system in the hopes that every time they do, less people will try to catch up and eventually everyone will fall in line like they want us to. Keep adding hoops and hurdles, and eventually, everyone’s legs will tire out.

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Cybertooth

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That, or they try to keep us so busy fixing stuff we don’t have time to learn to use another OS!

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Elly, zero2dash

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“There is no Current Branch for Business anymore.”

The concept may still exist in a renamed form. See https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/windows-as-a-service-simplified-and-aligned-microsoft-blog-post/#post-126783.

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ch100

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Also see Assign devices to servicing channels for Windows 10 updates.

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ch100

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Well that cleared up last weeks mystery as to why it got offered here despite having updates defferred in settings and GPOL. I wish I had know before ploughing through all my settings and having a good long “Head Scratch” as to why nothing was amiss and I still got the update.

Definately go with Woody’s advice and use WSUS Show & Hide, it works a treat you can find it here towards the bottom of the page.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3073930/how-to-temporarily-prevent-a-driver-update-from-reinstalling-in-window

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rc primak

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What I did get in this month’s Microsoft Updates on both of my devices, is the new Creators Update Privacy Settings snap-in. (Win 10, v. 1607, Pro, both 32-bits and 64-bits.) The update changed the presentation to look like the (I think) v.1703 Privacy Settings page(s). As I use O&O ShutUp 10, I simply ran that utility and saved the config. settings again. I think I pushed one slider (location awareness) to off for my NUC, which does not travel.

My ASUS tablet is being offered to preview an upgrade to a “Creators Update” — don’t know whether this is for a preview of the Fall CU or to apply the Spring CU. Neither device has had any Feature Update to v.1703 offered or foisted upon it — yet.

-- rc primak

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I’m hitting an unexpected problem. I ran wushowhide, then a manual update… and 1607 is telling me that a restart is required to finish installing 1703.

Arrrrrrrrrgh.

I don’t have time right now to troubleshoot a version upgrade on my production machine.

Clicking the “Schedule a time” link, I can defer the reboot until Sunday. Guess that’ll have to do.

Stop the madness. I want to get off!

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RamRod, Microfix, Cybertooth, Elly

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I’m curious… I managed to hide KB4013214 “Creators Update Privacy settings”. Does this mean I won’t get 1703 through Windows Update?

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Good question. I don’t know. Perhaps someone else does?

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I ran into that one several machines – here’s what we did.

If the updater shows 1703 still pending a reboot, and you have successfully used wushowhide.diagcab to block it, go to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download and delete ALL subfolders and files in there (but don’t delete the Download folder itself.)

Now at the Start menu, you should have roughly double the count of shutdown options listed.  Half are normal, the other half say something like Update and Restart or Update and Shut down.

Restart the workstation without the Update option.

Now when you recheck updates, the Feature update to 1703 should abort, and no longer be listed as pending.

~ Group "Weekend" ~

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woody

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I was set to Defer and did receive 1703 last week.  I wasn’t surprised, though, because it has been almost 4 months (and there will always be post hoc updates).  Nonetheless, there is something to be said for the expected vs. the unexpected.

Amusingly, my Windows Update Advanced Options notwithstanding allowed me to select Current Branch For Business.  I wonder when that will change.  Once the dust settles a bit, perhaps you can publish an updated recap of what the Advanced Options do and don’t do.  That would be especially helpful to all the folks who are not managed by WSUS and such.

Oh, and there was a curve ball.  1703 removed the driver I had installed to resurrect my ancient flatbed scanner — probably because it was unsigned for the old workhorse.  That aggravated me because I use a kludge to make it work and thus had to find a driver for a more modern scanner that would bring the magic back.  Cost me some time that I didn’t want to spend when I needed to use the scanner.

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@ CyGuy

> removed the driver I had installed to resurrect my ancient flatbed scanner…
> use a kludge to make it work and thus had to find a driver for a more modern
> scanner that would bring the magic back.

You didn’t ask for advice, but may I humbly suggest a potentially-useful site for those with old scanner issues?

VueScan Scanner Software – https://www.hamrick.com/

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CyGuy, Elly

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Thanks for taking the time to post Ed Hamrick’s site.  That was my Plan B.  No doubt I will need to use it in the (semi-annual) future.  I would like some advice about setting the Windows Update Advances Options (for Windows Pro) once the current upheaval settles down.

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“When your machine comes back up for air, click Settings > Update & security > Recovery, and under the heading ‘Go back to an earlier build,’ click Get Started.”  There is no “Go back to an earlier build” in mine.  AND one of those bugs in the Creator’s Update (apparently in some .Net module) has broken an application I have installed.  (There’s plenty of discussion on the mailing list for that application–SIL’s Fieldworks Language Explorer–and no fix short of a fix in Windows.  So I’m stuck with a broken application, with no way to revert to the pre-Creators version, until Ms gets around to fixing the bug they introduced.

And there’s absolutely nothing in the Creator’s Update that I want or need.

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Man, I sympathize!

You need to log on to Windows with an administrator account. Does the “Go back to an earlier version” button appear then? (Tks, @PKCano)

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I found the reason I wasn’t seeing the “revert to previous version” msg: I normally run in a non-administrator account, and you aren’t offered the reversion capability in a non-admin account.  Makes sense, I’m just surprised no one has remarked on that (and afaik, it isn’t mentioned in the original blog msg).  I’m recording it here in case anyone else is bitten by the same issue.

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Microfix, woody

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Managing a Linux system is child’s play compared to the uncertainty and confusion foisted upon the public by the ever changing landscape of Win10.

Microsoft’s table of Version/Release/Build numbers that constitute the beast that bears the Windows 10 label is mind numbing and its fancy footwork with nomenclature doesn’t help.  The facts make a mockery of the notion that Windows 10 is the last version of Windows to be distributed.

I guess it’s just another example of how MS has chosen to delude itself and confound the rest of us.

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David F, Cybertooth, Elly, Microfix

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Didn’t Microsoft created the whole “Monthly Rollup” thing to avoid fragmentation?

And yet here we are, with four different builds of Windows 10, the self-proclaimed best Windows ever…

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Cybertooth, Elly

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People from all walks of life have different views on W10 and this in itself, will be it’s undoing in it’s current model framework.

Keeping IT Lean, Clean and Mean!

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The quicker the better from where I stand.

From a Win10 Home user (sorry, sucker).

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I just got 1703 ( Didn’t want it, but I’ll keep it. ) A couple of software titles are now toast and I had to redo some settings. I’m sure that there’s more I’m not seeing right away. Oh well, it was now or later. Might just as well deal with it now and get it over with.

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AlexEiffel wrote:

So I looked at that wushowhide thing and no, I really don’t feel like having to run that tool every day on many workstations to see if the install appears and then have to hide it. Maybe I will do it for me, but I still find that a big ridiculous hassle, although less than having to put up with an OS install when I don’t want one.

I suggest you looking into WSUS for your environment.
Domain is not required, but if you don’t run AD, then you would have to do the configuration of Group Policies manually on each machine to point to WSUS. You could get around this by creating a reg file which would be run locally on each machine.
You can start with a free trial from here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2016
wushowhide is a hack to be used in emergency situations and not to be used in the longer term.

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Thanks, ch100. This would cover some workstations, but I have a lot of them that never connects locally. They are scattered around two countries and are autonomous stations. They get the occasional maintenance through remote access but otherwise are installed in a set it, lock it and forget it unless there is issue mode. It has served me well over the years because I try to only use software that autoupdates so the laptop stay fully patched although it doesn’t run admin.

I agree that wushowhide is a hack. Anything you need to run and manually check every day can’t be anything else than a hack as it doesn’t scale, not even outside my own office!

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No problem with internet based workstations. 🙂
Just open port 8530 or 80 (SSL tends to be unreliable with WSUS and difficult to implement) to the internet and you run your own version of Windows Update.

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AlexEiffel

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I am running Win10 1607 in three VMs. I had decided to “invite” Creators Update on one as a test, so I had unchecked the “defer feature updates” on it. Subsequently, it had received KB4013214 “Creators Update Privacy settings” early in July. I have since been checking for updates frequently (several times yesterday) to no avail – CU never showed up.

People who had “defer feature updates” checked were getting CU, like it or not. So late yesterday I checked “defer” on that VM. And, lo and behold, it started searching for updates and the feature update immediately showed up.

Strange.

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Elly

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Reminds me how I used to be afraid of using DNT as an internet newbie “because it might be seen like I have something interesting to hide from spies”.

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@ PKCano

M$-Nadella’s thinking might have been;
1. “if you have checked “Defer feature updates”, I will serve the Creators Update/1703 to you first”.
2. “if you have unchecked “Defer feature updates”, I will come to serve the update to you later, ie after I have dealt with those  who had deferred feature updates.”

“Windows as a service”.

Edit to remove content

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There are additional options available for those with certain Windows editions: How to Pause and Defer Updates on Windows 10.

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CyGuy, AlexEiffel

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I already did the gpedit modifications a long time ago, but I thought I read here that someone had CU installed even with those in place. I don’t know though if I put 180 days, if it starts the day I set it or if it reinitializes the delay every time they label the latest CBB.

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Thanks for the link.  How-To Geek is an excellent site for beginners and intermediate users.  Here’s another on this topic:

http://www.digitalcitizen.life/delay-pause-windows-10-updates

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MrBrian

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I have 1703 Pro and I made some changes to Windows Update in  gpedit and then decided to put back to default. I changed everything back and then changed everything back to not configured and rebooted. Now when I go to settings / Windows Update I see *  Some settings are hidden or managed by your organization * and my settings are grayed out and still showing the entries I entered into gpedit. Am I doing something wrong here or is this a bug ? How do I get my settings back without using gpedit.

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Also, besides everything being grayed out, I don’t have a check for updates button anymore. This is crazy ??

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It is crazy; but I get the same effect:  “Some settings are managed by your organisation” (I am my own organisation) and I can’t get back to a “normal” person’s view of the problem.

There must be at least two different places where all these settings are recorded, because it is quite easy to provoke a situation where Windows Update says one thing, GPEDIT says the opposite, and it is not clear which of them (or something else) is obeyed at runtime.

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I’m hoping someone with a lot more knowledge about this than me, can shed some light on what’s going on here.

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There is a discussion of the general issue at https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/group-policy-hope-on-home-editions-of-windows/.

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This is all very confusing for a non-techie like myself, anything I can delete or do to fix ?

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Maybe this will help: https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/july-2017-patch-tuesday-rolls-out-with-another-load-of-updates/#post-124487.

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Still no joy 🙁

 

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You might want to change the settings to configured for now to the setting you want in gpedit. It might at least do what you want, then you can choose not configured.

From what I have been gathering during the few minutes I could spend on the subject of local group policies in the last few days, gpedit writes to a temporary place in the registry that is later wrote on exit to registry.pol files in c:\windows\system32\sysvol that you don’t care about because they are not easy to read even if they are basically just registry keys. There is one registry.pol file in each of two folders (machine and user). The registry keys in there just lacks the beginning portion because it is determined by the folder in which it resides (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for the machine folder and HKEY_CURRENT_USER for the user folder). When you start Windows or type gpupdate /force (you could try this command because it would maybe clear the parameters before changing them all after instead of just trying to add the changed ones), the parameters in those registry.pol files are sent to the registry where they will be enforced.

On thing you could do is use procmon (available for free online from sysinternals) to watch where in the registry the settings you choose in gpedit are written. It will just show you the temporary registry location, but from there you can remove the weird GUID part the one with numbers and { } and figure out where in the registry it will be written. Users settings are stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER and machine at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. However, setting the registry directly is not the proper way to go as it might create incoherences with the registry.pol files. For example, suppose you set a parameter directly in the registry after you set it to unconfigured with gpedit. When Windows load, it will not change the value unconfigured because it is unconfigured, but it will still apply the set parameter in the registry. If you set a parameter to disabled with gpedit, but directly set it to enabled in the registry, next time group policy is loaded, it will disable you parameter set manually.

Here are the registry parameters for the parameters you played with mabye. You could just look at them in the registry and if you see some configured, then you might have an incoherence between what is set in gpedit and there. If you use a third-party program that writes directly to the registry, it could explain some discrepancies too. I don’t advise you play with the registry directly. If something is set there, go find the appropriate parameter in group policy and work from there (likely in the Windows update section of administrative section of machine section of group policy in group policy editor.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
“DeferFeatureUpdates”=dword:00000001  ; 1 is on
“BranchReadinessLevel”=dword:00000020   ; procmon shows 32 but 20 in hexa means CBB
“DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays”=dword:000000b4    ; 180 days in hexa to delay
“PauseFeatureUpdates”=-                    ; pause add max 60 days of delays   (dword:00000001  to activate)
“DeferQualityUpdates”=dword:00000001            ; choose to defer quality updates
“DeferQualityUpdatesPeriodInDays”=dword:0000001e    ; max 30 days for delay
“PauseQualityUpdates”=-                    ; pause add a max of 35 days of delay for quality updates

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
“NoAutoUpdate”=dword:00000000                ; autoupdate is on
“AUOptions”=dword:00000003   ; 3 auto download + notify
“ScheduledInstallDay”=dword:00000000            ; every day
“ScheduledInstallTime”=dword:00000003            ; 3 3:00am
; those might only if we set planned updates to on
“NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers”=dword:00000001        ; if planned install on, no automatic reboot
“RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled”=dword:00000001        ; ask to restart with planne d installs
“RebootRelaunchTimeout”=dword:000001f4            ; 8 hours to ask for restart if planned install else it is 10 minutes by default

I might write something about managing local group policies for home users or small businesses with no domain when I have some time when I will be done testing it. Unfortunately, information on the web about this subject is scarce and don’t seem very reliable. It is easy to shoot yourself in the foot when you don’t know what is going on behind the scene and you must be ready to fix errors yourself or be able to do a clean install if you want to experiment.

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Thanks for the info….keeping for future reference. I just restored an image to previous date and all appears to be working.

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Sigh

With all this windows movements they are doing, I am seriously considering staying forever with 1607…

by the way, I want to ask  since i am not familiar with how windows works

windows security updates  are applied to windows apps, or the whole system?

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Generally speaking, I think that the update’s description will tell you what it applies to. Although nowadays you can’t be sure anymore if MS will give you full and accurate information. More and more, you’re treated as a peasant who’s supposed to unquestioningly accept whatever We decide to send you, and your PC increasingly becomes a “black box” whose inner workings are to remain mysterious except for the priesthood in Redmond.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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FYI – On Win 10 Home 1607 (cheap lappy) and p****d off with how MS are doing this update stuff so set it to metered connection (only available on WiFi AFAIK) to throttle the update process. Downloads are manual only on metered.

For last two months have been informed there is more than 1GB update data to download but when I DL (still metered) I’m just getting the small files (Security – .Net – Mal Rem Tool, etc) and so far staying on 1607 – suits me.

I suspect MS want to avoid liability for my bandwidth. Can anyone confirm?

Edited for content

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Update to 1703 and you can set Ethernet as metered too. 🙂

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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If it ain’t broke …

I suspect MS had some reasoning behind limiting metered to wifi. Do you think they won’t apply the same reasoning to 1703, some time down the track, once ‘upgraded’? And possibly net a whole lot more into the endless upgrade mire?

I’ll keep watching …

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Reply;

Wow! … More than 1GB of cumulative updates for Win 10 1607 after a few months. And then more than 3GB of feature updates/upgrades needed twice a year. Also, the constant phoning-home back-and-forth to M$ servers by Win 10 computers may be eating up many MB per month.
… Seems, only those richer folks with Internet plans for download speed of 10Mbps or more and monthly Data Caps of many GB could run Win 10 and run it unmetered.

IIRC, Win 10 RTM/1507 had no metered setting for Internet. After complaints from ISP subscribers who were Data capped with low monthly GB, M$ grudgingly introduced metered Internet for only Wifi in Version 1511.
… After more complaints from subscribers of Satellite and Mobile Broadband Internet who are also Data capped with low monthly GB and have to use Ethernet connections, M$ grudgingly included Ethernet for metered Internet in Win 10 1703.

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Like so many, I wish to stay on 1607 until it becomes clearly stable. I am using Shutup 10 to block updates, which does so by changing registry settings under my understanding. (sorry that’s as technical as I get.) Right now, in Windows Update, I see this message (which I have always seen since installing Shutup 10):

“Update Status

There were some problems installing updates, but we’ll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information, this may help: (0x80070422)”

I did see an offer to download the Creators Update but when I checked again this disappeared. Of course I have defer updates selected.

Bottom line question: Am I safe from getting forcible update to Creators, or do I have to switch to a metered connection and/or load the wushowhide utility?

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anonymous wrote:

Bottom line question: Am I safe from getting forcible update to Creators, or do I have to switch to a metered connection and/or load the wushowhide utility?

Microsoft is pushing CU 1703 down in spite of the “defer feature updates” setting. You would be much safer using wushowhide and hiding the upgrade. Using metered connections will stop it also, but it also affects other updates.

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Is there any evidence that Microsoft isn’t honoring the “defer feature updates” setting? It seems to me that it’s working exactly as expected.

2 users thanked author for this post.

ch100, b

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I had all my Win10 1607 set to “defer feature updates” All were offered the CU 1703 update through WU in the last few days. I let one go as a test, but on the others the only way I could stop the upgrade was wushowhide (they’re wired not WiFi) – it definitely disregarded the “defer” settings.

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From Defer upgrades in Windows 10:

“Some Windows 10 editions let you defer upgrades to your PC. When you defer upgrades, new Windows features won’t be downloaded or installed for several months. Deferring upgrades doesn’t affect security updates. Note that deferring upgrades will prevent you from getting the latest Windows features as soon as they’re available.”

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b

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I believe that Microsoft’s definition from post #127716 is somewhat inaccurate. “Defer feature updates” means that a more recent feature update (if one is available) won’t be installed until one of its builds has been designated Semi-Annual Channel (formerly called Current Branch for Business) by Microsoft.

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AlexEiffel

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That was my understanding. Defer feature updates basically meant to be on CBB now Semi-Annual Channel instead of the regular home channel now called Semi-Annual Channel (targeted).

So you would get the update when designated CBB (prior) or Semi-Annual channel (now).

There is also a setting in the registry to delay by a number of days (max 180). I don’t know if it still works or if it has ever worked on Windows Pro but I set it just in case).

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
“DeferFeatureUpdates”=dword:00000001  ; 1 is on
“BranchReadinessLevel”=dword:00000020   ; procmon shows 32 but 20 in hexa means CBB
“DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays”=dword:000000b4 ; 180 days

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MrBrian

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@AlexEiffel

Yes, you are quite correct, as per:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-tip-temporarily-delay-the-creators-update/

IOW, Win 10 Pro & Ent can delay a new Version from downloading and installing through Windows Update by a total of about 300 days or 10 months, ie about 120 days with the “Defer feature update” option and 180 days with Group Policy.

Problem is, EOL for the new Win 10 Version will be reached after 18 months from release date. So, if the new Version is postponed for 10 months from release date, the users will be left with only 8 months of usage before EOL arrives.

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AlexEiffel

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What’s the difference between “defer updates” and “pause updates”? I know about “feature” updates vs. “quality” updates; what I want to know is how “deferring” and “pausing” are different in MS theory. Can a user of Windows 10 Pro first “defer” the updates and then “pause” them just before the deferring period is done? Or can you first “pause” the updates and then “defer” them just before the pausing period is done?

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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From what I understood earlier, pause can make you delay an update by a certain number of days the moment you set it, so yes, in theory, you could defer updates to be on CBB (now Semi-Annual Channel), then right when you know (if you can) that the new CBB will be designated, you could at that moment select pause updates. Or, you could maybe just unpause and pause udpates every week as the first thing you do on your PC on Mondays…

However, it seems now that the group policy description is not always a reliable way to know what MS decided now the parameter would do today. Welcome to WaaS. What do you we want the group policy setting do today?

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Cybertooth

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AlexEiffel wrote:

Or, you could maybe just unpause and pause udpates every week as the first thing you do on your PC on Mondays…

Pause is for seven days, but you can’t re-pause without checking for updates.

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1778 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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AlexEiffel

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Thanks for the precision. So that means what you do in the GUI is quite different from what is possible in theory in group policy. Using the registry settings I presented higher here you could pause for up to 60 days the feature updates, unless Microsoft says so in the description I have in AU but changed it for CU and starts applying it even before I got CU installed…

I guess we could probably figure out how to set the registry directly to restart the counter and set 60 days every week by clicking on a registry file. However, doing that, one would have to be careful not to go past EOL as some anonymous pointed out. Deferring until a certain level of stability is reached (MS definition and Woody’s don’t seem to be the same) could be a reasonable move. Then you would have the barely out of beta testers home users, the SAC enterprises testers a few weeks later and then you with an arguably more polished version with less risk of upgrade issues a few weeks later.

And before you ask b, yes I already experienced what I consider unacceptable issues while upgrading to AU even after it was granted CBB status. Drivers were not preserved and I ended up with stations suddenly not being able to print. One wasn’t able to update and rolled back to previous release and we had to manually play with it to be able to perform the update properly. Not my idea of a seamless, agile, computing experience. Nothing against the idea if it works, but you know like me that Windows has never been such a great OS to do in-place upgrades compared to clean install, so 2 a year is lot considering they probably couldn’t fix this problem of in-place upgrade that easily.

For those less familiar with the terms, defer or pause feature updates means do not install the new releases of Windows (like Anniversary Updates, Creator’s update, etc.) which are in fact a huge in-place upgrade. Pause updates means other updates as well, which might be less of concern for a lot of users if patches don’t cause issues.

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I believe that deferring refers to avoiding feature updates for a certain length of time, while pausing pauses all updates, including quality updates.

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ch100

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AlexEiffel wrote:

However, it seems now that the group policy description is not always a reliable way to know what MS decided now the parameter would do today. Welcome to WaaS. What do you we want the group policy setting do today?

LOL [a bitter laugh…]

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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This seems to be boiling down to whether “details matter”. We know of course than they CAN and DO matter for some folks more than others.

For what it’s worth I “disobediently” (LOL) installed my Creator’s Update system early as well (then later had to throw the upgraded system away and fresh-install it, but that’s another story).

That first release of Creator’s Update v1703 software was apparently built on March 18, while the software prior to the latest update was (I believe) built on July 7, 11 days short of 4 months.

Not to fan flames, but who said the CBB promotion was to be exactly 4 months after release? I remember “about 3 months” being the guidance.

I don’t think the criticism here is that Microsoft sped up the promotion, so much as they are promoting the software BEFORE it is done – this time releasing a big mass of updates AFTER the promotion to fix what look like some pretty critical problems (though it’s hard to know how many folks have seen them, which does of course influence their importance). Why not wait until that particular set of updates is out, and tested a week or two by the unwashed masses, THEN promote?

Sure, bug-bashing happens all the time – it’s all a big pipeline in the agile model – but why not put out a bit of marketing to say something like “we decided to go ahead and promote 14393.483 to CBB because it’s very stable and the remaining problems are being seen by very few folks”? More transparency and real information is better. This stuff actually matters to people.

Both of the two bugs I’ve personally seen in Windows 10 v1703 are still happening on my system in build 15063.502, by the way, so I could claim that Microsoft promoted too soon w/regard to specific problems that are important to ME.

Beyond specific dates and problems, underlying this all is that Microsoft is clearly trying to lower the bar on what people think is acceptable, and that activity – which I find odiferous – is apparently having more or less success on different people.

What I mean by that is, specifically, that Microsoft appears to be trying to influence (for their benefit) what business users are expected to find acceptable. We can have a whole discussion about how they’re doing that, but rest assured they ARE trying to change the cuture of computing – which I find quite odd at a time just after they had finally reached a quality level with Windows that was actually very good.

Maybe the execs took a hard look at what it took to achieve that quality level and decided it was just too darned expensive to do – which AGAIN I find odd since they’re now filthy rich from the endeavor.

I have been forced to wonder whether it must just be laziness driving them down their current path – which of course doesn’t extend to every individual at Microsoft. No doubt some Microsoft engineers are busting their humps to get these releases out on their ridiculous imposed schedules, and are doing the best they can not to screw them up. But for the managers it must somehow be a lot easier to manage mediocrity than it is do manage excellence.

-Noel

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Elly, AlexEiffel

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I think it’s part of a trend to find ways to make more money from doing less work. It’s easier to find ways to rip people off, steal data from them, beat them over the head with ads and sell the stolen data to other people for a ton of money. Isn’t that easier than churning out quality products? Cheaper, too. They even figured out how to get the public to test the software that does this to them to make sure it’s working properly. It’s insane and it’s all born from greed. It’s exactly what’s going to and is destroying this company as we’ve known it for decades.

Taking all this into consideration, it’s not all that odd at all what’s going on. It’s even easier when being done in a country with a corporate-run government where they get to make the rules, but I digress. Times are surely changing and not really for the better.

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Elly

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Noel, I am impressed at how much you post and still can often say things that are so rich and filled with new interesting perspectives and information. I completely agree with your analysis here.

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Elly

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Still trying to figure out how to credibly block Creators Update and stay on Anniversary (1607) until things settle down. I see that Microsoft is issuing a patch to solve the 1607 ‘Dual-Scan’ issue:

https://redmondmag.com/articles/2017/08/07/windows-10-version-1607-dual-scan-patch.aspx

This appears to allow more control over group policies. I’m not sure how to interpret this issue:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/wsus/2017/05/05/demystifying-dual-scan/

Since I have Win 10 Pro, can I use the above to block Creator’s update?

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Windows 10 tip: Temporarily delay the Creators Update

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kb4025334 allows disabling feature updates coming from WSUS

“Addressed issue that requires the addition of a new client-side Group Policy that optionally disables Dual Scan behavior”

My organization was having issues with devices suddenly updating from  1607 to 1703

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4025334

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MrBrian

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Improving Dual Scan on 1607 (Microsoft blog post)

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Tweet from Nathan Mercer‏: ‘we released Semi Annual Channel last week on July 27, so possible your Ent machine had “defer upgrades” set which waits for Broad (CBB)’

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