Options for delaying updates and reboots on Windows devices managed by Engineering IT

Devices managed by Engineering IT update and reboot as necessary on a schedule. This document explains the options users have for delaying this schedule. This only applies to devices running recent versions of Windows 10.

For more info about the behavior of updates on devices managed by Engineering IT, see this page.


Pausing Windows Updates...

Updates can be paused for up to 35 days. This will prevent updates from being installed, which will also prevent reboots related to updates from happening. Note that pausing does not have an effect on the behavior of Windows updates which are already installed, meaning it cannot be used to avoid a pending restart.

After the selected pause period, updates will automatically be unpaused. As soon as updates are unpaused, for any reason, pending updates must be installed before pausing will be available again. As a result, Windows will immediately check for and install updates after being unpaused, even if you manually unpause after pausing for only a short time. So be sure you want to pause updates before pausing and be extra sure you want to unpause them before unpausing.


To pause or unpause Windows Updates:

1. Open your start menu and start typing "windows updates". Select the Check for Updates option that appears.


2. (Recommended) Make sure you're fully up to date
3a. To pause for 7 days, click Pause updates for 7 days
3b. To pause for longer, click Advanced Options



3bi. If selecting a custom pause length, select the date to resume pausing from the Pause updates dropdown menu.



Note: These screenshots are from Windows 10 version 1903. The settings may look slightly different in different versions of Windows 10. The pause updates feature is not available in older Windows operating systems (Windows 8, Windows 7, etc.).

Requesting an exception

For systems which have a legitimate business/research use case that conflicts with the regular update/reboot schedule, we provide an exception process, which can be initiated by filling out the exception form.


Short URL for this page: https://go.illinois.edu/engrit-delay-updates