Hello windows boffins,
I'm setting up a new PC for business and I want to do everything I can to lock down any kind of automatic updating.
It will be used for incredibly time sensitive work so I want to minimise any kind of automatic downloading, automatic installing, background tasks I have no control over, automatic anything.
Are there any built in settings or reputatable programs I can install to help me with this?
Then I can update it manually and check all software is still working manually after deadlines.
We've used Windows 7 up until now because it just works and I've not had to worry about updating, I'm quite concerned Microsoft may screw me over at the worst possible time if I don't address this though.
Thanks
I had set up 2 laptops for my 2 cousins to used it for business 4 years ago installed Windows 10 with automatic updates.
4 years on, my cousins had no issues with Windows 10 automatic updates. I received no calls from my friends and family on issues with Windows 10 since 2015 compared to around nearly 100 calls on Windows 7 issues with automatic Windows Update and no calls on Windows 8/8.1 issues with automatic Windows Update. If my cousins had any issues with software, games and Microsoft Store apps on Windows 10 then I should have calls from them but so far no calls since 2015 mean they don't have issues with all software, games and Microsoft Store apps installed on Windows 10.
If I clean install Windows 7 today with automatic Windows Update and it will download probably around 300 updates then Windows 7 will install all updates in wrong order which will caused configuring windows updates failures and rolled back. It will worked fine if I turned off automatic update and manually selected updates in correct order by date from oldest to latest but it will be nightmare task to do it to manually install around 300 updates which could take a few days if I have no spare time.
Windows 8/8.1 is much better than Windows 7, if I clean install Windows 8/8.1 today with automatic Windows Update and it will download probably around 300 updates then Windows 8/8.1 will install all updates in correct order and there will be no configuring windows updates failures. Installed around 300 updates on Windows 8/8.1 would probably take 6+ hours to do it.
Windows 10 is now much better than both Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1, if I clean install Windows 10 today with automatic Windows Update and it will not download something like 300 updates compared to Windows 7 and 8/8.1 so Windows 10 will need to download very few updates, Windows 10 1809 had only 8 quality updates before I upgraded it to 1903 so now 1903 have 2 quality updates.
I found Windows 10 automatic updates far very effective with very few small updates which only take a min to installed compared to both Windows 7 and 8/8.1. You got really nothing to worry about Windows 10 automatic Windows updates but if you really concern about Windows 10 automatic windows update then you can go to Advanced Options to pause updates for up to 35 days to allow you for incredibly time sensitive work to meet deadlines before resume automatic Windows Update to download just a few small quality updates. Also you can turn off Microsoft Store apps automatically updates in Microsoft Store Settings to stop it download apps updates almost everyday.