defrost a day ago

All around, for everything, I cannot recommend the Chris Titus (and friends) WinUtil enough:

https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil

It's a suite of powershell scripts and tweaks that are open source for inspection frontended by a nifty powershell multi tabbed TUI (Text User Interface) widget.

There's a tab for upgrades and installs of common dev / tech / power user tools; a tab for tweaks; a tab for windows update options; a tab for building install disks / VM's (eg: minimal for gaming or for hosting windows applications in Qubes, etc).

Update Tab can select all updates / only critical / none ever / advise and let you choose.

To use, you do need to 'trust' (or inspect the work of and download source and self apply) a pool of windows tech nerds - you literally open a powershell admin window and pipe raw boot script over the internet and give it control to bring up the TUI.

This could be malware (but isn't, last I checked) - same risk with all such tools d/loaded from internet of course.

See Usage on github page - various writeups and youtube tutorials.

It'll rip the AI addons, Copilot, and Snapshot and Spy stuff right out of Windows 10 / 11.

Easy to use and follow.

  • ryandrake 20 hours ago

    Anyone know if this stops the truly diabolical Windows 11 behavior where it removes the options to "Shut Down without updating" and "Reboot without updating?" At some point, the only option to shut down your computer is "Shut Down and update." I've gotten to the point where I just yank the power cord to turn off my computer, because Microsoft doesn't permit any other way.

    • DANmode 3 hours ago

      I feel like cmd or Powershell will allow a magical incantation to shut the machine down immediately.

      Edit: Yes, here we are, in Powershell,

      Stop-Computer -Force

    • defrost 15 hours ago

      Good question - I'm still running 10 daily, I'm busy today and only tangentially follow the community - but it is still an issue being tracked:

      https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil/issues/2358

      ( it might be resolved via another number - worth checking by d/loading to 11 and checking the hotlink notes in the update tab ... )

vachina a day ago

Go to system32 and take ownership of wuaeng.dll and qmgr.dll and restrict access to only your user. Works on 10 and 11.

Windows will chug along as if Windows Update never existed (forever).

GoblinSlayer a day ago

Isn't it microsoft who blocks updates after it discontinued windows 10?

  • AlexandrB a day ago

    You still get a lovely, full-screen advertisement for upgrading to Windows 11 on boot every few weeks.

    • Madmallard 13 hours ago

      I fully expect at some point for it to ninja-download and ninja-install because I meet the system requirements.