How to Disable Automatic Updates on Windows 11

Settings, Windows Update, Pause updates, and pick the longest option available — usually five weeks. That’s the official way and it works, but it’s temporary. After five weeks Windows resumes downloading and installing whatever it wants, and you have to go back and pause again. For most people this is enough. You get a month-plus to let other people beta-test new updates before your machine installs them.

If you need something more permanent because a specific update keeps breaking your machine, open Group Policy Editor — Win+R, type gpedit.msc, enter. Navigate to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Update, Manage end user experience. Find “Configure Automatic Updates,” set it to Enabled, and change the dropdown to “2 - Notify for download and notify for install.” Windows still checks for updates but won’t download or install anything without your permission. You pick when and what goes in.

Group Policy Editor doesn’t exist on Windows 11 Home — it’s Pro and Enterprise only. If you’re on Home and want the same control, the registry edit does the same thing: open regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU, create a DWORD value named NoAutoUpdate and set it to 1. Restart. Same effect — Windows checks but doesn’t auto-install.

Block a Specific Update

Had a customer’s HP EliteBook that blue-screened every time KB5058405 installed. He’d uninstall it, machine would run fine for three days, then Windows Update silently reinstalled it overnight and he’d wake up to another crash loop. This went on for two weeks before he called us.

Download Microsoft’s “Show or Hide Updates” troubleshooter — search “wushowhide” and grab the .diagcab file. Run it, click “Hide updates,” find the specific KB number you want blocked, check it. Windows won’t try to install that update again until you unhide it. This is the only Microsoft-supported way to permanently block a single update on consumer Windows.

For driver updates specifically — Windows Update loves pushing generic Microsoft drivers that replace manufacturer-specific ones and cause problems — go to Settings, Windows Update, Advanced options, Optional updates. Driver updates show up here. Don’t install them unless you specifically need something. And in Group Policy, “Do not include drivers with Windows Updates” under the same Windows Update tree keeps drivers out entirely.

When Not to Disable Updates

Don’t turn off updates and forget about them for a year. Security patches for actively exploited vulnerabilities ship monthly and skipping them puts you at real risk — ransomware and zero-days exploit exact CVEs that these patches fix. The pause-for-five-weeks approach is actually ideal for most people: you’re a month behind the bleeding edge so the worst bugs get caught by early adopters, but you’re still getting security fixes within a reasonable window.

The people who should actually disable automatic updates: anyone who runs specialized software that breaks on updates (accounting software, medical equipment, industrial controls), anyone with a metered connection who can’t afford 2-4 GB downloads, and anyone who’s already been burned by a specific update and needs time to restore their system before it reinstalls. If you’re not in those categories, pause works better than disable because you don’t have to remember to manually check.