Windows Auto Update Guide

Open Windows Update and Check Where You Stand

Open Settings → Windows Update (on Windows 10: Settings → Update & Security → Windows Update) and click Check for updates. Note what the page tells you: you are up to date, updates are waiting, or a restart is pending. Everything in this guide is about controlling when updates install and restart your PC — not about stopping them, because security updates are what keep known holes closed.

Set Your Active Hours

On the Windows Update page open Advanced options → Active hours. Active hours tell Windows when you normally use the PC. Inside that window Windows will not restart the PC on its own to finish an update — the restart waits until outside your hours. By default Windows adjusts active hours automatically from your activity; switch to setting them manually and pick your real working hours, for example 8 AM to 10 PM on an office PC.

Turn On Restart Warnings

In Advanced options, turn on "Notify me when a restart is required to finish updating". With this on, Windows shows a clear warning that a restart is needed instead of the restart feeling like it came from nowhere. Combined with correct active hours, this is what makes automatic updates painless: the update installs in the background, and the restart happens with warning, outside your work.

Review Driver Updates Before They Install

Drivers also arrive through Windows Update. In Advanced options → Optional updates you will find driver updates offered for your hardware — these wait there until you choose them, they are not forced on you from that list. Review them per device before installing. If a new driver ever causes trouble, you can undo it: open Device Manager, right-click the device → Properties → Driver → Roll Back Driver.

Pause Updates — Only as a Temporary Control

On the Windows Update page you can Pause updates — one week at a time, up to a maximum of 5 weeks on Windows 11 (up to 35 days on Windows 10). This is meant for a genuinely busy week: an exam, a presentation, travel on limited data. It is a pause button, not an off switch.

See Which Programs Have Updates with winget

Windows Update looks after Windows itself. Your installed programs are updated by winget, the Windows Package Manager that comes built into Windows 10 and 11. Open Windows Terminal, Command Prompt or PowerShell and run:

winget upgrade

This only lists — it changes nothing. You get a table of the programs that have a newer version available, with the current version and the available version side by side.

Update Everything in One Click

Now run the one command that upgrades every program in that list:

winget upgrade --all

Stay at the PC while it runs: some installers ask for administrator approval (the UAC prompt) or show their own progress windows, and the very first winget run may ask you to accept a source agreement — accept it to continue. Some updates need a restart afterwards; do that restart outside your active hours when one is pending.