Here is why you may want to skip this month Windows Updates

Patch Tuesday is just around the corner; Microsoft pushes out security updates and other updates for all of its products on the second Tuesday of the month.

While that is a good thing usually, Windows 10 users who have not upgraded systems to the new Windows 10 version 1803 "The April 2018 Update" may want to configure their devices to skip that update.

Microsoft plans to push the new feature update for Windows 10 to eligible PCs and devices this Tuesday.

While you can start the update to Windows 10 version 1803 already if you really want to as it was released on April 30, 2018, Tuesday marks the beginning of the general rollout phase.

Right now, you will have to become active to get the update, but from Tuesday on the update is offered automatically through Windows Update.

In other words: if you don't block the upgrade to the feature update, your devices may be upgraded to it starting this Tuesday. May, because the update is pushed out in chunks starting with the most modern PCs that are most likely to update without larger issues and then to older machines.

If you have not followed the release of the update, you may wonder why you should block the upgrade at this point in time.

It is simple: the update is riddled with bugs. I upgraded one PC to Windows 10 version 1803 and ran into a good dozen major issues; Edge or Windows Defender won't load, I can't right-click on taskbar items, no microcode update for Windows 10 version 1803 to patch the Spectre security issue is available, and shutdown is broken unless you disable Fast Restart.

Those are just the issues that I ran into. Other users reported Chrome, Cortana and other software program freezes, out of disk space warnings because the recovery partition got a drive letter suddenly, lots of Alienware PCs that lock up, and a lot more.

You can go back to the previous version if a device is updated automatically to the new version of Windows.

It is likely that Microsoft will release fixes for some of the issues but since those are provided on Tuesday the earliest, there is no time to test them before systems might get upgraded to the April 2018 Update.

So, with all the problems and issues associated with the Windows 10 version 1803 update, you may want to think hard about upgrading to the new version right now.

Instructions for delaying Windows 10 feature upgrades can be found here. In short:

• If the device is powered by Windows 10 Pro, Education or Enterprise: Open Settings > Windows Update > Advanced Options and select to defer the feature update for 30, 60 or even 90 days.
• If the device is powered by Windows 10 Home: set your network connections to metered under Settings > Network & Internet.

Alternatively, use third-party tools like Block Windows 10 Updates or Windows 10 Update Switch instead.

In either case, it is recommended that you create a backup of the system partition so that you can go back on your own terms and don't have to rely on built-in functionality for that.

You can roll back in the first ten days by visiting Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.

Now You: What's your experience with the new Windows 10 feature update?