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Set up Windows Server Update Services[1] and you can control every single update that presents itself to your machines. Here's a screenshot from my WSUS which s

Set up Windows Server Update Services[1] and you can control every single update that presents itself to your machines. Here's a screenshot from my WSUS which shows the pending W10 upgrades I have not yet approved: https://imgur.com/0LN5N7n.png https://imgur.com/0LN5N7n.png [1] https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb332157 https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb332157

Silhouette 10y ago
Right, but doesn't WSUS need some extra infrastructure? The average small business or power user isn't running Windows Server with domains and so on set up. They're probably running a handful of Pro machines for users, or even just a single machine. In that context, I think my previous question stands. Can someone who is running Windows 10 Pro then control the Windows updates they do or don't install?
- discreditable 10y ago
  Minimally WSUS needs a server OS to run on, Active Directory, and a Group Policy to point clients at it. If you buy Windows Pro and don't put it on a domain there's no real difference between that and Home except that you're paying more for capabilities you aren't using. For denying updates in such a scenario, you're stuck doing everything manually on each machine via unsupported methods and hoping your users don't undo your changes.
  - Silhouette 10y ago
    Minimally WSUS needs a server OS to run on, Active Directory, and a Group Policy to point clients at it. Right, but how many small businesses or power users have those? To a first approximation, the answer is probably "none". If you buy Windows Pro and don't put it on a domain there's no real difference between that and Home except that you're paying more for capabilities you aren't using. Well, the above isn't actually true. For example, I'm writing this on a machine with 32GB of RAM running Windows 7, which Pro can use but Home editions can't. But that aside, whatever Microsoft choose to call their different editions and however much they change what terms like "Pro" actually mean between Windows versions, the reality is that there is a huge market of small businesses and power users who want to run Windows, don't want or need the kinds of management tools traditionally associated with Enterprise editions and Windows Server, but do require stability and reliability in their IT systems. With Windows 7, they had that. With 10, they don't. For denying updates in such a scenario, you're stuck doing everything manually on each machine via unsupported methods and hoping your users don't undo your changes. I'm going to do something I don't usually do and guess what the person I'm debating with is like in real life here. You're some sort of sysadmin or CIO within a non-technical organisation large enough to use Enterprise, or at least to be within its target market, right? The reason I'm expecting that is that you refer to what a huge amount of the market actually does, using tools provided for that exact purpose, as "unsupported". I work with quite a few different small businesses, freelancers, and other such users, mostly in technical industries. It is absolutely routine in these organisations for everyone to have admin rights on their own PC and to handle their own updates, not least because it's very unlikely that there is any dedicated IT staff to manage these things centrally. The thing you seem to consider weird or dangerous is what millions of professional Windows users do all the time. The sky has not yet fallen, the networks have not yet been taken over by botnets, and actual work has not been interrupted by Windows 10 barging in unannounced. Which is lucky, because if it could, it looks like that entire segment of the market would be out of luck.

Silhouette 10y ago

Right, but doesn't WSUS need some extra infrastructure? The average small business or power user isn't running Windows Server with domains and so on set up. They're probably running a handful of Pro machines for users, or even just a single machine. In that context, I think my previous question stands. Can someone who is running Windows 10 Pro then control the Windows updates they do or don't install?

discreditable 10y ago
Minimally WSUS needs a server OS to run on, Active Directory, and a Group Policy to point clients at it. If you buy Windows Pro and don't put it on a domain there's no real difference between that and Home except that you're paying more for capabilities you aren't using. For denying updates in such a scenario, you're stuck doing everything manually on each machine via unsupported methods and hoping your users don't undo your changes.
- Silhouette 10y ago
  Minimally WSUS needs a server OS to run on, Active Directory, and a Group Policy to point clients at it. Right, but how many small businesses or power users have those? To a first approximation, the answer is probably "none". If you buy Windows Pro and don't put it on a domain there's no real difference between that and Home except that you're paying more for capabilities you aren't using. Well, the above isn't actually true. For example, I'm writing this on a machine with 32GB of RAM running Windows 7, which Pro can use but Home editions can't. But that aside, whatever Microsoft choose to call their different editions and however much they change what terms like "Pro" actually mean between Windows versions, the reality is that there is a huge market of small businesses and power users who want to run Windows, don't want or need the kinds of management tools traditionally associated with Enterprise editions and Windows Server, but do require stability and reliability in their IT systems. With Windows 7, they had that. With 10, they don't. For denying updates in such a scenario, you're stuck doing everything manually on each machine via unsupported methods and hoping your users don't undo your changes. I'm going to do something I don't usually do and guess what the person I'm debating with is like in real life here. You're some sort of sysadmin or CIO within a non-technical organisation large enough to use Enterprise, or at least to be within its target market, right? The reason I'm expecting that is that you refer to what a huge amount of the market actually does, using tools provided for that exact purpose, as "unsupported". I work with quite a few different small businesses, freelancers, and other such users, mostly in technical industries. It is absolutely routine in these organisations for everyone to have admin rights on their own PC and to handle their own updates, not least because it's very unlikely that there is any dedicated IT staff to manage these things centrally. The thing you seem to consider weird or dangerous is what millions of professional Windows users do all the time. The sky has not yet fallen, the networks have not yet been taken over by botnets, and actual work has not been interrupted by Windows 10 barging in unannounced. Which is lucky, because if it could, it looks like that entire segment of the market would be out of luck.