Just like the previous versions of Windows, Windows 11 also allows the users to pause the automatic updates for a certain number of days. Typically, Windows 11 allows the users to pause the updates in terms of weeks. We can pause the updates on Windows 11 anywhere from 1 week to 5 weeks. But what if we wish to pause the updates for a longer period of time? In this case, we can change the maximum allowed limit of 5 weeks for pausing the updates by making a few changes in the Windows Registry. Here is how:
- Press Win+R hotkey to open the Run dialog. Type regedit in the Run dialog and press Enter. This will open Windows Registry Editor
- In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings.
- Create a new 32-bit DWORD value named FlightSettingMaxPauseDays and change its value to the number of days for which you want to pause the updates. For example, setting its value to 3654 (decimal) will change the maximum limit to 10 years.
Once you have changed the maximum allowable pause limit for the Windows updates, you can pause the updates from the Windows Settings. Here is how:
- Press Win+I hotkey to open the Windows settings. Alternatively, you can click on Start and then the cogwheel icon to open the Windows settings.
- From the sidebar select Windows Update category.
- Under the Windows Update section, choose the number of weeks for which you want to pause the updates. You can choose by clicking on the drop-down list. There are values listed from 1 week to nth week.
- As soon as you pause the updates, you will be able to see for how long the Windows automatic updates are paused.
The method also works for Windows 10. But if you are a member of the Microsoft Windows Insider program, then you won’t be able to use this method.