Need Another Reason to Block Automatic Windows Updates?

If you are a regular here on this blog you know that it is better to have automatic updates turned off on Windows as it gives you more control over the updating process and some time to monitor responses to released updates.

While most updates install just fine and work fine as well after installation, broken or faulty update releases appear to have increased in recent time.

I don't have scientific data on that but since I cover all Patch Tuesday releases and all major updates released in between the monthly releases, I notice trends and one of these trends is that there are more known issues and more updates that break things or don't install properly on some systems.

The release of Windows 10 version 1803 for instance on Windows Update makes a good example. The update had a lot of bugs initially, and most users were well advised to skip it initially to wait until Microsoft resolved the bulk of them. Windows Update will install drivers as well, and you may want to disable the installation of drivers to avoid issues.

Windows 10 users can defer or pause updates to block the automatic installation of updates, or use third-party tools such as Windows Update Mini Tool Wrapper, Windows 10 Update Switch, and others.

Another reason?

It appears that Microsoft pushed notifications about a new Preview Build for Windows Insiders to devices that are not running Insider versions of Windows according to these Twitter threads in which Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc confirmed the issue.

LeBlanc mentioned that activation of the "update" button would not install the new build on Stable versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system, and that the issue affected only a small number of devices.

Microsoft turned off the notifications as a consequence to investigate the issue. It is rather obvious that devices that don't run Windows 10 Insider Build should not receive notifications about new Insider versions.

While no harm could be done to devices running release versions of Windows 10, it is likely that it confused users who were exposed to it.

The main takeaway from the incident is that mistakes happen and that Microsoft is not exempt from making them. The particular issue at hand was not critical and it appears that Microsoft caught it quickly which prevented it from being shown to more users who are not part of the Insider program.

The disabling of automatic updates may have prevented the notification in first place if the notification is initiated through a new update check by Windows Update.

Now You: How is your Windows Update experience so far this year?