The world must be turning upside down since Microsoft is giving users unprecedented control over Windows 11 updates. To say that Windows 11 users have had a rough time of it over the last six months would be an understatement. Since Windows 10 was deprecated in October, users have seen one update after another that have either broken legacy features or introduced their own share of bugs. Credit to Microsoft’s engineers for continually working on fixes and essentially fixing the barn door after the horses have gone out, but at least they’re trying. Meanwhile, in a shock to many, Microsoft is relinquishing some of its tight reins regarding user control with Windows 11 updates.
“The changes we’re rolling out today are focused on giving Windows users more control over their PC experience, while keeping devices secure by design and by default.”
– Microsoft
The first changes are being made to the out-of-the-box experience (OOBE). It is during OOBE when users first encounter updates during the initial Windows install. More often than not, these are usually a painless experience, but given the track record of recent updates, better safe than sorry when it comes to getting the latest, and so these can be skipped, but only on consumer devices as commercial devices are likely under organizational management.
“Earlier this year, we added the control to immediately skip updates during device setup—giving you the option of landing on the desktop faster and getting updates later or getting updates right away and landing on a PC that has all the latest features and fixes.”
– Microsoft
Next up, and a bit more exciting for some, is the ability to skip updates entirely. Now it should always be recommended to install security updates, but they may not necessarily be an immediate concern. However, there are some that might be avoided altogether. Windows 11 users have had the ability to delay updates by pausing them, but now Microsoft is allowing them to be paused for up to 35 days. There’s a bonus: users can re-enable these pauses as many times as they choose. While still not as clean as an on/off toggle, it’s at least nice to know that you’ll be able to derail pesky unwanted updates.
“When 35 days just isn’t long enough, we are also enabling you to extend the pause end date as many times as you need. This means you can now re-pause for up to 35 days at a time, with no limits on how many times you can reset the pause end date.”
– Microsoft
In another unexpected announcement, and inspired by the countless memes on the subject, Microsoft is changing how the shutdown and restart options are shown when updates need to be installed. Devices can be shut down and restarted without instigating the update process.
“We’re improving this experience by clearly separating power actions from update actions. With this change, the Power menu will always show the standard Restart and Shut down options, meaning you will always have a choice to just restart or shut down your device without having to install the pending update.”
– Microsoft
Initially, these features have been made available to Windows Insiders, but began rolling out last week through main channels, yes, you guessed it, via Windows updates. The obvious goal is to make updates less of a precarious experience by giving users more flexibility while also trying to keep devices secure.