For quite a while now Windows 10 updates have been automatic with no way to stop them, but Microsoft has just announced that this will change very soon and it will be possible for users to be able to control when Windows 10 gets updated.

For DAW users not have control over when a DAE workstation’s OS gets updated or not is essential especially when some brands do not approve OS updates for some time after the OS has been updated. We need to be able to control when our OS is updated so that we can retain a system with the approved version of the OS to go with the version of our DAW.

Mike Fortin, who is Corporate Vice President, Windows has recently posted a blog titled ‘Improving the Windows 10 update experience with control, quality and transparency’ in which he says…

“In previous Windows 10 feature update rollouts, the update installation was automatically initiated on a device once our data gave us confidence that device would have a great update experience. Beginning with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, users will be more in control of initiating the feature OS update. We will provide notification that an update is available and recommended based on our data, but it will be largely up to the user to initiate when the update occurs.

We are adding new features that will empower users with control and transparency around when updates are installed. In fact, all customers will now have the ability to explicitly choose if they want to update their device when they “check for updates” or to pause updates for up to 35 days.”

There have also been some complaints about the quality of some of the recent updates, which with the automated updates have compounded problems for some users and resulted in a ‘broken’ computer. As a result Microsoft’s Mike Fortin has felt it was necessary to comment on this too, saying…

“We are taking further steps to be confident in the quality of the May 2019 Update. We will increase the amount of time that the May 2019 Update spends in the Release Preview phase, and we will work closely with ecosystem partners during this phase to proactively obtain more early feedback about this release. This will give us additional signals to detect issues before broader deployment. We are also continuing to make significant new investments in machine learning (ML) technology to both detect high-impact issues efficiently at scale and further evolve how we intelligently select devices that will have a smooth update experience.”

You can learn more by reading Mike Fortin’s post in full as there is a lot more detail about exactly how users can control the Windows 10 updates including pausing updates and ‘intelligent active hours’.