It doesn’t matter if you’re pumped for the Creators Update, the new version of Windows 10 that makes drawing all over you screen easier. Whether you like it or not, your Windows 10 device will be getting it. If you’re a part of Microsoft’s Insiders Program — a beta-like program that gives you builds of Windows 10 early — then you’ll already be on Creators Update. For the rest of us it will come, like a little surprise, over the coming months.
Image: Screenshot
And make no mistake, like death, Creators Update comes for us all. Every single Windows 10 machine will eventually be forcibly updated to Creators Update. But with that forced update comes something amazing: the ability to postpone all future updates. Well, for a time, anyway.
Microsoft instituted forced updates in Windows 10 computers for security reasons. Windows is just behind Android as the most used operating system in the world, and a lot of it’s users don’t understand, or care, about things like upgrading their computers to kill glaring security flaws. Forcing the update keeps the ignorant safe, while also protecting others from their possibly bot-infested porn machines.
But for many computer users stability is just as important as security, and Windows’ forced updates had a history of screwing up big projects and leaving savvier users annoyed.
Why thank you, Windows Update. How did you know I wanted you to close all my programs and reboot my laptop while I was away?
— Meagan Longoria (@mmarie) April 6, 2017
My body is shutting down…
Like when Windows Update restarts your computer but you don’t want it to and you can’t stop it.
— Ryan Farroki (@RyanFarroki) April 11, 2017
When you’re leaving work and your laptop starts running a Windows update pic.twitter.com/DAQHJOxout
— Ram (@machiramc) March 31, 2017
The fact that you cannot pause Windows Update from downloading updates is shit.
— Aloys F. Detey (@feytastic) March 30, 2017
Funny moment at the library a little while ago when Windows Update commandeered all the PCs for an update/reboot
— The Real Rooker (@JMRooker) February 16, 2017
GG windows update just reboot my PC without asking so l lose a whole page of fucking work. Fantastic #windowssucks
— Tim Shannon (@Drunken_Jedi) February 15, 2017
Now, once Creators Update is live, You can go to Settings on your device, then Update & security, then Advanced options under Update Settings. Clicking the button under Pause Updates will pause any updates for 7 days.
That’s not the indefinite pause many of us would like, but it gives you at least a modicum of control back so you don’t have to worry about updates inexplicably happening when you’re processing video or crunching code or up at three in the morning try to finish a paper for school.