Time to turn off Windows Automatic Update and caryatid for affect

Patch Tuesday hits tomorrow. Maybe information technology'll be benign, as information technology was in August. Maybe, as in July, the rolled out offal will break everything in sight. You lot've got to enquire yourself 1 question: 'Do I feel lucky?'

Baronial 2018 was a relatively innocuous patching month, although the final resolution to the August problems didn't announced until tardily Fri night just as the month was coming to a shut  — on a 3-solar day weekend in the U.s..

We've seen the same pattern echo itself virtually every month since the get-go of the year: The first round of Microsoft security patches (notably including Win10 patches) introduce bugs, while subsequent rounds of patches each month squash nigh of them. If we're lucky.

Sometimes the fixes come up in second or third cumulative updates. Sometimes they come in Monthly Rollup Previews — a heinous practice. In either instance, a significant group of starting time-round patchers get hit. Their more cautious brethren sit down and lookout, listen to the screams of pain, and look for the all-clear.

If yous remain resolute in your belief that Microsoft's manner is the best way, and so past all means, I urge y'all to install all of the updates as shortly as they're available. That way you can tell us what went incorrect. Apply your telephone.

If you're just a tad skittish — those who learn from the past aren't doomed to repeat it, eh? — I recommend y'all turn off Automatic Updating, simply for a while.

How to cake Windows Update

The methods for blocking Windows Update are pretty straightforward.

If you're using Windows 7 or 8.1 , click Start > Control Panel > System and Security. Under Windows Update, click the "Turn automatic updating on or off" link. Click the "Alter Settings" link on the left. Verify that you have Important Updates set to "Never check for updates (not recommended)" and click OK.

If you're using Windows 10 Pro version 1703, 1709, or 1803, and Microsoft doesn't change its heed again, you can use Windows' built-in tools to concur off on the looming patches — just follow Steps seven and eight in 8 steps to install Windows ten patches like a pro . Other Windows 10 users, including all Win10 Domicile owners, aren't quite so lucky, but the general "metered connexion" approach is detailed in Woody's Win10Tip: Block forced Windows updates .

If you're a Paranoid Pro, it'd be wise to employ both the Update advanced options approach and the metered connection arroyo. You can never take too much protection.

To keep your machine on 1703 or 1709 — and avoid 1803 , for the meantime — follow the detailed steps in How to block the Windows 10 Apr 2018 Update, version 1803, from installing . Yes, Microsoft has ignored those settings on some machines, merely using all of the tricks — fifty-fifty setting Pro machines to metered connexion — seems to block the forced march.

Microsoft has vowed that it will stop dishing out security patches for Win10 1703 adjacent month — although it isn't clear if the catamenia will cease with the showtime (buggy?) round of cumulative updates, or if the bugs will exist bad enough that Microsoft will be shamed into releasing a 2d or tertiary round of 1703 cumulative updates in October.

Those of united states of america who are still using 1703 will have to decide next month whether we're going to jump to 1709, 1803, or maybe even 1809. Only that'southward a determination for another day.

We're at MS-DEFCON 2 on the AskWoody Lounge .

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