/WindowsUpdateSetting

A set of PowerShell commands for configuring Windows Update settings on Windows 10 and 11 desktops.

Primary LanguagePowerShellMIT LicenseMIT

WindowsUpdateSetting

PSGallery Version PSGallery Downloads

The PowerShell commands in this module are intended to make it easier to automate the process of pausing and resuming Windows Updates on a Windows 10/11 desktop as well as a few other update-related settings. This module will not work on Windows 10 Home. If you are running an Enterprise edition of Windows, your settings may be managed via Group Policy, in which case you won't be able to use this module.

You can install the latest version of this module from the PowerShell Gallery.

Install-PSResource WindowsUpdateSetting

The module should work on PowerShell 7 running on a Windows platform.

Command Overview

Suspend and Resume Windows Updates

Normally, you would use Settings to pause Windows Update for 35 days.

settings

You can use this module to toggle that setting from a PowerShell prompt.

PS C:\> Suspend-WindowsUpdate -passthru

   Computername: PROSPERO

Paused   PauseStartUTC          PauseEndUTC             TimeRemaining
------   -------------          -----------             -------------
True     3/18/2025 12:32:04 PM  4/22/2025 12:32:04 PM     35.03:59:59

Or you can specify a date, as long as it is less than 35 days. Use Get-WindowsUpdateSetting to view the current values or Test-IsWindowsUpdatePaused to test.

Updates should resume automatically at the end of the pause period. However, you can run Resume-WindowsUpdate to resume updates manually.

Resume-WindowsUpdate

Configure Active Hours

This module also contains commands to set your active hours.

set active hours

PS C:\> Get-WindowsActiveHours

Computername         Start        End
------------         -----        ---
PROSPERO          06:00 AM   11:00 PM


PS C:\> Set-WindowsActiveHours -StartTime 8:00 -EndTime 20:00 -Passthru

Computername         Start        End
------------         -----        ---
PROSPERO          08:00 AM   08:00 PM

Configure Update Deferral

The module also contains commands to manage deferrals of certain updates.

deferrals

You can view and modify these settings.

PS C:\> Get-WindowsUpdateDeferral

Computername FeatureUpdateDeferral QualityUpdateDeferral
------------ --------------------- ---------------------
PROSPERO     undefined             undefined

Use Set-WindowsUpdateDeferral to set the deferral values. You can use -Feature and -Quality to set the number of days to defer feature and quality updates, respectively.

PS C:\> Set-WindowsUpdateDeferral -Feature 30 -Quality 7 -Passthru

Computername FeatureUpdateDeferral QualityUpdateDeferral
------------ --------------------- ---------------------
PROSPERO                        30                     7

You should test all of these commands on a non-production system.