Turn off Automatic Updates on Windows 10 Professional

Call me weird, but when I create and maintain virtual machines for demonstration and training, I like to be in control of if/when Windows updates are installed. This is fit for purpose since I’m not using these VMs for production. In Windows 8.1 it was a straightforward setting …
Windows 8.1 Never check for updates setting

Windows 10 Professional is not so straightforward. Going into the Advanced Options page didn’t give me much in the way of optionsย …

Windows 10 Update Advanced Settings

After some enlightenment from comments in this post, I was able to get the behavior I wanted by setting a local policy …

  1. Run gpedit.msc.
  2. Expandย Computer Configurationย > Administrative Templatesย > Windows Componentsย > Windows Update.
  3. Double-click the Configure Automatic Updates setting.
  4. Changeย the setting to Enabled and select option 2 – Notify for download and notify for install.

Configure Windows Update GP setting

  1. Save your changes, exit the Group Policy editor, and restart Windows (or run GPUpdate.exe).

Theย Windows Updateย Advanced Options page now shows me what I want and, more importantly, Windows 10 behaves the way I want.

Windows 10 Update Notify to download

Note: Needless to say, to change the behavior back, or to a different setting, you’ll need to redo the above steps.