In its early editions, Windows used to offer a built-in option to defer or delay Windows Upgrades for up to 365 days. Later on, the option was removed because users get the liberty to install updates as and when required. However, you can still risk experiencing software or driver issues after installing a fresh update. To prevent this from happening, you might want to choose to Pause an update or delay it until you see how other users are responding to the new update.
Defer or Delay Windows 11 2022 Update or Feature Upgrades
Microsoft removed the Defer feature update setting, which were there in Windows 10. Now you will have to use one of these two methods to defer Windows 11 Upgrades: Let us take a look at each of these in detail.
1] Defer or Delay Windows 11 Feature Upgrades using the Group Policy Editor
Before you proceed, you must know that the Group Policy Editor is available only in the Professional and Enterprise editions. If you have the Windows 11 Home edition, you can follow this workaround to get the Group Policy Editor on your PC. When you decide to allow Windows to install the upgrade or feature updates, you can change these settings from Enabled to Not Configured. Also Read: Feature Updates are not offered while other Windows Updates are.
2] Defer or Delay Windows 11 Feature Upgrades using Registry Editor
Type regedit in the Windows taskbar search box. Registry Editor will show up on top of the search results. Select Run as administrator on the right panel. In the Registry Editor window, navigate to the following path: Tip: If you cannot find the WindowsUpdate folder, right-click on the Windows folder and select New> Key. Then name it as WindowsUpdate. Inside the WindowsUpdate folder, right-click anywhere on the right panel and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it as DeferUpgrade. Double-click on the key, select Decimal as Base, and set the Value data to 1. Inside the WindowsUpdate folder, right-click anywhere on the right panel and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the key as DeferUpgradePeriodInDays. Double-click on the key, select Decimal as Base, and set the Value data to anything between 0 to 365. This value represents the number of days for which you wish to delay the upgrade. Inside the WindowsUpdate folder, right-click anywhere on the right panel and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the key as DeferUpdatePeriodInDays. Double-click on the key, select Decimal as Base, and set the Value data to anything between 0 to 30. This value represents the number of days for which you want to delay updates. When you decide to remove the defer update settings, delete all the DWORDs you have created following the above steps. Do remember to create a system restore point before tweaking any Registry or Group Policy settings.
Read Next: Fix 0x800f0806 Error while downloading or installing Windows 11 Updates.
