I recently used Privatezilla to disable automatic updates. Not sure if the same approach works on Windows 11, but you might find the relevant registry keys mentioned in the code helpful: https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla/blob/master/src/P...

Under Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options > enable "Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in". Most apps since Windows 7 register their current documents, workspace, etc. with Windows when they launch, and can then be reopened on next boot with the same context. If they don't support that API, Windows will just remember the command line and relaunch it.

I use this for a work computer that I shut down daily and it restores everything I had open: browser windows & tabs, email, Visual Studio solutions, PyCharm workspaces, Windows Explorer windows, Slack, etc. And update restarts use this mechanism specifically.

This is helpful. Thank you.

Now here is to hope That the next "fix" from windows does not push an update that consistent blue screens my PC [1] which is why i prefer to reject all patches.

[1]https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/window...

Run the Windows update checker manually on a periodic basis, same as you would on a Linux server, and you will never be caught by forced reboots or patches being downloaded at inconvenient times.

> I don't want to do X but I'm being forced to, how do I avoid this?

> Just do X yourself

This isn't helpful in the slightest.

...no? The GP commenter's problem-as-stated isn't that X is being forced on them; their problem is that X is being forced on them when they don't have time to deal with it. The solution is to do it when they do have time, ideally frequently such that only small incremental updates are needed, such that each update cycle doesn't take very long.

A.k.a. "if you don't want to get a toothache and have your life interrupted with a 'random' need to visit the dentist, then take a few minutes of your choosing each day to brush your teeth."

> A.k.a. "if you don't want to get a toothache and have your life interrupted with a 'random' need to visit the dentist, then take a few minutes of your choosing each day to brush your teeth."

Microsoft taking control of a computer you bought and paid for remotely to force it to do what they want is in no way comparable to a health issue and I really don't understand what could possibly lead you to believe it is.

When you go to the dentist, the dentist takes control of your mouth and forces it to do what they want. I don't see what's confusing about that.

If you think the scope of the loss of control doesn't line up: replace "brushing your teeth" with "watching your blood pressure"; "a toothache" with "a stroke"; "the dentist" with "an ICU doctor"; and "taking control of your mouth" with "taking control of your whole body" (since you're likely under general anesthesia — they've literally taken control of your body away from you to fix the problem.)

But, by looking at my analogy as analogizing two fields, I think you missed the point. I was trying to give a general analogy about preventative maintenance tasks you are expected to enact as part of the ownership of a tool; where that tool will eventually 'randomly' break down without said maintenance, effectively forcibly interrupting you to have reactive maintenance done by some external professional at much greater time cost. Your teeth are just one such tool.

A different but equivalent analogy would be to changing the oil in your car. If you don't do it, eventually at some 'random' time you'll need to spend a long time at a repair shop because your engine cylinders got grit in them and wore holes large enough to lose stroke pressure.

Also, if you mean to suggest that these cases are different because the computer is "choosing" to force the update on you, rather than "requiring" the update in some technical "being broken" sense — it's not like that's uncommon. Many tools and machines — industrial ones, specifically — come with resource and maintenance sensors built into them which will prevent you from operating the machine in a condition where it would begin to require maintenance, to prevent you from accidentally imposing an above-tolerance workload on a system that you presumably want to last a long time. Self-greasing CNC routers will stop running when they run out of grease, rather than trying to operate dry. Etc.

If you question why your system "requires maintenance" in the first place — well, this is what I addressed in a sibling comment. If you believe in vaccines, and in herd immunity; and if you understand that, for active threats (computer worms et al), computer networks have virality coefficients just like human populations do; then you should be able to see that the "maintenance" being required here, is for the sake of the network, rather than for the sake of your own computer per se. (Although it is also for the sake of your own computer, insofar as, besides just joining you to a botnet, a worm could also carry a crypto-locker payload or something equally nefarious.)

And if you question why Microsoft should be able to force your computer to "get vaccinated", when the government can't force you to do so — well, consider something the government can do: it can prevent you from driving a car that doesn't pass an EPA inspection. Because driving is a privilege, rather than a right. Well, operating your computer isn't a right either. It can come with conditions.

(If you, finally, notice that the distinction should actually be "operating your computer on the Internet", similar to "driving your car on the road" — such that operating your computer offline, or driving your car on a private track, shouldn't be something anyone other than you has a say in — well, I'm not going to argue with you there. Computers could certainly have the option to delay a forced restart to install a patch, but to "force you offline" until such time as the [already-downloaded] patch is installed. I think OSes only don't offer that because it'd be terribly confusing for the average grandmother. But it could certainly be something hidden in the most arcane of config flags.)

But I didn't go to the dentist. I went to the computer store.

You’re comparing a problem pushed by a software vendor that doesn’t exist with other OSes to an unavoidable biological issue.

>doesn't exist with other OSes

Those other OSes have a much smaller market share and do not care about security of their platform.

Uh huh.

Linux kernels don’t run something like 90% of the servers out there?

Linux falls under the second category where they don't really care about securing their users. They think it's okay for a ton of servers of their operating system to exist with vulnerable services running. Every company has to dedicate duplicate resources into keeping servers up to date.

With servers it's expected to have someone to actually take care of them - I.e. do maintenance work like reboot once a month or use LivePatch or other measures.

Note though, snapd updates packages for you by default and was not an option to disable this as well.

2nd note - once you are talking about servers - I believe Windows Server has much fine grained control over this.

I generally had once or twice my Windows 11 Pro Insider Beta machine to reboot forcibly - usually I see notification on pending reboots and even been asked when to do it/delay. Cannot complain here.

Microsoft, as a private corporation, has no business coercing a user to maintain a standard on a device that does not belong to them. Enforcing public policy through tyranny is a role that should lie exclusively with a government accountable to its citizens. The history of western democracy is littered with wars fought to ensure this is the case.

The computer isn't owned by them, but the operating system sure is. If you don't want Microsoft updating their operating system then use someone else's.

How is this an argument for Microsoft forcing updates on people's devices? Microsoft own Windows, that doesn't give them jurisdiction over people's property.

I never said it did. Updating yourself doesn't require ownership of a device. It's just a feature of the software.

> Edit: yes im aware we need security patches but id lile those on demand, not randonly

Doing it on your terms gives a lot of control back to you. Huge difference in experience.

Just use "Pause updates for X days".

Install updates once a month and Windows does not have to do it "randomly".

If you have a Pro or Enterprise SKU you should be able to disable automatic updates by messing with Group Policy (Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update). Changing the "configure automatic updates" policy should be enough but you might have to change others, just go through them and read the descriptions.

Learn to configure your system. Save your work. It's 2023 dude.

Do you have a PC?

Are you aware how user-hostile is Windows to even allowing you to turn on your computer without creating an MSN "account" [0]

Are you aware that not every user on HN is a software engineer that is comfortable with changing registry values?

Its 2023. Empathize with your user or see your startup go dead without funding

Registry values? It's pretty easy to tell Windows when to do updates. This is nonsense.

You sound like a person who buys ugly Walmart jeans because they are cheap, efficient and economical and then wonder why no one talks to you.

People who refuse to talk to me based on the looks/branding/cost of my clothing aren't people I care to talk to

(Not to whom you're replying)

I'm entirely comfortable with configuring my Windows to behave how I want, but over the years the increasing user hostility of Windows has driven me to Linux, such that I only use Windows On a work machine, and I'm reminded almost daily about how good my decision was to make the switch.

What I mean is: even those of us who can, are sick of having to.

I think the poster is referring to the loss of desktop state, not necessarily the loss of unsaved documents.

> your system

If you can't disable updates, it's not "your" system.

Note the change from "My Computer" to "This PC." Subtle, isn't it?

> Is there a tried and true instruction to (…)? I keep losing sensitive work because of the Windows penchant

2023, the year of Linux on the desktop ?

There are "active" threat classes (worms, and human attackers explicitly running intrusion exploits) that can infect your computer while it is sitting idle, you know.

What would you prefer: coming back to find your computer has joined a botnet while you were gone; or coming back to find your computer was restarted while you were gone, to avoid joining a botnet?

I would prefer to find it as I left it. And in 45 years of using computers this has always been the case. But then againg, I haven't used windows in more than two decades now, other than a single box here that talks to an older mixer and that machine doesn't even have an internet connection, I treat it as part of the mixer.

> And in 45 years of using computers this has always been the case

Yes, because you presumably do your computing mostly behind some kind of NAT most of the time, and without any un-patched devices hanging out on the same LAN segment, and so there's no path for worms to have ever reached you by.

That's not necessary true for the average computer user, though, who connects to shared wired or wireless networks at an office/coworking space/internet cafe/university campus/etc. Those that do this may end up with either/both of 1. a public-routable (usually IPv6) address for bots and worms to talk to, and 2. a link on a multicast-routable subnet with other already-infected devices.

Also, a few years after you stopped using Windows, cryptocurrency was invented, which "changed the game" for cybercriminals in a lot of ways. Fun, meaningless, low-penetration cyberthreats don't exist any more; as "hacking groups" are now motivated by "real money" to get root on every PC they can so they can deploy crypto-miner background services, encrypt files and hold them for (cryptocurrency) ransom, exfiltrate the user's own crypto-wallet private keys, etc.

Did you try Reboot Blocker [0]? It works by constantly rotating the Active Hours configuration so that the current time is always within active hours, thus delaying Windows Update restarts indefinitely. It works reliably on Windows 10, but I couldn’t find confirmation for Windows 11.

[0] https://udse.de/reboot-blocker/

Oh this is a very creative solution. I will try to find a WIN 11 version - thank you so much!

Forced Windows updates caused me no end of problems too. I'd run a simulation overnight and discover Windows had rebooted on its own and I lost all my results. Or I wanted to show a movie at a birthday party but Windows decided it had to spend an hour updating.

I followed various instructions to disable automatic updates, and I'm someone who generally keeps things up to date, but after the third time of Windows updates ruining things, I gave up and switched to a MacBook. With Windows it seems like updating is its primary task and running applications is secondary to. There's probably someone at Microsoft who shows weekly graphs of Windows updates, and their bonus depends on the graph continuing up and to the right, so they ram through whatever update features are necessary without thinking of the customer experience.

You see, it's Microsoft's point of view that no longer we own a system and are the administrative users of it, but Microsoft by its ClippyAI uses us as a system for their needs and they are the administrative users of their lowly subjects.

The fact that you watch videos, open programs and earn a living and lay out files on the PC is merely collateral, they see it's a necessary accident to keep you on the line and plug into your essence to try to drain it.

Let's repurpose PC to mean either Piece of Crap or Post-Computers depending on how we react to the new establishment.

> Is there a tried and true instruction to prevent windows 11 from running updater at all?

Check out this:

https://www.sordum.org/9470/windows-update-blocker-v1-7/

I'm going to try this. Looks easy enough to implement. I'm leaving the PC on all night tonight.

Genuinely curious if this will result in a successful block, a failed block....or a BSOD ? I'll report back.

Crossing fingers - Thanks you!

I haven't used 11 yet. When I was on 10, there was a group policy that would prevent automatic updates & restarts. The OS would check regularly for updates but wouldn't automatically download them.

If this is still available in 11, that's your best solution.

simplewall let you completely block connection to update servers.

https://www.henrypp.org/product/simplewall

Also it is probably best opensource firewall for Windows out there. Portmaster from Stafin has similar approach but not good for managing firewall rules.

Windows update is the reason I originally left windows behind. The update process on Windows is awful, onerous, and completely lacking respect for the user.

I could put up with everything else, but I can’t tolerate how updates are handled. It was even worse back when I was on a data capped WISP connection.