[How To] Allow/Prevent Users To Pause Updates In Windows 10

With recently released Windows 10 Insider Preview build 18282, Microsoft has introduced ability to pause Windows Updates. Using the initial release of this feature, users can pause Windows Updates for a week (7 days).

How To Pause Windows Updates In Windows 10

To use or configure Pause updates feature, you need to go to Settings app > Update & Security > Windows Update.

Then in the right pane, click on Pause updates for 7 days link.

This will immediately pause Windows Updates on your system. Meanwhile, if you need to resume Windows Updates again, you can click on Resume updates button.

Now in this article, we’ll see how to enable or disable this newly introduced Pause updates feature.

How To Allow/Prevent Users To Pause Updates In Windows 10

1. Press + R and put regedit in Run dialog box to open Registry Editor (if you’re not familiar with Registry Editor, then click here). Click OK.

2. In left pane of Registry Editor window, navigate to following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

3. Now in the right pane of WindowsUpdate registry key, right click in blank space, select New > DWORD Value. Name the newly created registry DWORD (REG_DWORD) as SetDisablePauseUXAccess. This registry DWORD can be used to allow/prevent users to pause updates in Windows 10. Double click on this registry DWORD to modify its Value data:

4. Finally, set the Value data to 1 and click OK to prevent users from pausing updates. Close Registry Editor and reboot to make changes effective.

After restarting the machine, you’ll realize that user access to Pause updates feature is disabled. In short, users can’t pause updates now.

To allow users to pause updates later, simply delete SetDisablePauseUXAccess DWORD or set it to 0.

That’s it!