Windows Update: FAQ

Note: If you’re looking for Microsoft Office update info, see Install Office updates.

In Windows 10, you decide when and how to get the latest updates to keep your device running smoothly and securely. When you update, you’ll get the latest fixes and security improvements, helping your device run efficiently and stay protected. In most cases, restarting your device completes the update. Make sure your device is plugged in when you know updates will be installed.

If other questions come up when you update Windows 10, here are some other areas that might interest you:

When you only want info about updating Windows 10, you’ll find answers to many of your questions here:

When the Windows 10 May 2020 Update is ready for your device, it will be available to download and install from the Windows Update page in Settings. Choose a time that works best for you to download the update. You’ll then need to restart your device and complete the installation. After that, your device will be running Windows 10, version 2004.

To manually check for the latest recommended updates, select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Windows Update .

To get help updating to the latest version of Windows 10, go to the Microsoft software download page and download the Update Assistant.

Some updates may not be available on all devices at the same time—we’re making sure updates are ready and compatible.

To stay up to date, select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Windows Update , and then select Check for updates.

If a feature update is available for your device, it will appear separately on the Windows Update page. To install it, select Download and install now.

Here are a few things you can try if you’re having trouble installing updates:

Make sure that your device is connected to the internet. Downloading updates requires an internet connection.

If you’re connected the internet, try to install the updates manually. Select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Windows Update , and then view available updates.
Check for updates

Run the Windows Update Troubleshooter. Select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot . Under Get up and running, select Windows Update.

The time required to download updates primarily depends on internet connection speed, network settings, and update size. Make sure your device is plugged in and connected to the internet to download updates faster.

You can’t stop updates entirely—because they help keep your device safe and secure, updates will eventually need to be installed and downloaded, regardless of your update settings. Here’s how to temporarily pause updates from being downloaded and installed. Note that after the pause limit is reached, you’ll need to install the latest updates before you can pause updates again.

In the Windows 10 November 2019 Update (version 1909) or later, or in Windows version 1809 for Pro or Enterprise, select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update . Then choose one of the following options:

Select Pause updates for 7 days.

Select Advanced options. Then, in the Pause updates section, select the drop-down menu and specify a date for updates to resume.

To finish installing an update, your device will need to restart. Windows will try to restart your device when you’re not using it. If it can’t, you’ll be asked to schedule the restart for a more convenient time. Or, you can schedule anytime by following these steps:

Select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Windows Update .

Select Schedule the restart and choose a time that’s convenient for you.

You can set active hours to make sure automatic restarts for updates only happen when you’re not using your device. Learn about active hours for Windows 10.

Try deleting files you don’t need, uninstalling apps you don’t use, or moving files to another drive like an external USB drive or OneDrive. For more tips on freeing up disk space, see Free up drive space in Windows 10.

We recommend keeping devices like laptops and tablets plugged in when you’re not using them. This way, if updates are installed outside active hours, your device will have enough power to complete the installation. Windows updates don’t consume more battery than other typical system processes.

An update history is available so you can see which updates were installed, and when. You can also use this list to remove specific updates, although we don’t recommend this unless it’s necessary.

Select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Windows Update > View update history .

For more info about what’s included in updates for Windows 10, see Windows 10 update history.

We don’t recommend that you remove any installed updates. However, if you must remove an update, you can do so in update history.

Select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > View update history > Uninstall updates.

Select the update you want to remove, then select Uninstall.

Feature updates are typically released twice per year and include new functionality and capabilities as well as potential fixes and security updates. Quality updates are more frequent and mainly include small fixes and security updates. Windows is designed to deliver both kinds of updates to devices through Windows Update.

To double check that your device is up to date, open Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and see your update status and available updates.

To find which version of Windows you’re running, see Which version of Windows operating system am I running?

Reserved storage is not automatically turned on by Windows in any update scenarios. It is only turned on for new devices with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) or later preinstalled, or devices on which a clean install was performed.

Note: If you’re looking for Microsoft Office update info, see Install Office updates.

The best way to keep Windows 8.1 up to date is to turn on automatic updates. With automatic updates, you don’t have to search for updates online or worry about missing critical fixes or device drivers for your PC. Instead, Windows Update automatically installs important updates as they become available.

To turn on automatic updates:

Open Windows Update by swiping in from the right edge of the screen (or, if you’re using a mouse, pointing to the lower-right corner of the screen and moving the mouse pointer up), select Settings > Change PC settings > Update and recovery > Windows Update. If you want to check for updates manually, select Check now.

Select Choose how updates get installed, and then, under Important updates, select Install updates automatically (recommended).

Under Recommended updates, select Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates.

Under Microsoft Update, select Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows, and then select Apply.

Click the questions below to see answers about how Windows Update keeps your device up to date.

Note: If your PC is connected to a network where updates are managed by Group Policy, you might not be able to change settings related to Windows Update. For more info, contact your organization’s technical support.

Open Windows Update by swiping in from the right edge of the screen (or, if you’re using a mouse, pointing to the lower-right corner of the screen and moving the mouse pointer up), select Settings > Change PC settings > Update and recovery > Windows Update. To check for updates manually, select Check now.

An update history is available so you can see which updates were installed, and when. You can also use this list to remove specific updates, although we don’t recommend this unless it’s necessary.

To see your PC’s update history, open Windows Update by swiping in from the right edge of the screen (or, if you’re using a mouse, pointing to the lower-right corner of the screen and moving the mouse pointer up), select Settings > Change PC settings > Update and recovery > Windows Update > View your update history.

We don’t recommend that you remove any installed updates. However, if you must remove an update, you can do so in update history.

Open Windows Update by swiping in from the right edge of the screen (or, if you’re using a mouse, pointing to the lower-right corner of the screen and moving the mouse pointer up), select Settings > Change PC settings > Update and recovery > Windows Update > View your update history.

Select the update you want to remove, then select Uninstall.

Here are a few things to try if you’re having problems installing updates:

Make sure that your PC is connected to the internet. Some updates can’t be installed if you’re using a metered internet connection.

If you’re connected the internet and updates aren’t installed automatically, wait a few minutes and then try to install the updates manually.

See the Fix Windows Update errors guided walkthrough to try to fix the problem.

Support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020

We recommend you move to a Windows 10 PC to continue to receive security updates from Microsoft.

Click the questions below to see answers about how Windows Update keeps your device up to date.

What’s new in Windows 10, version 2004 for IT Pros

Applies to

• WindowsВ 10, version 2004

This article lists new and updated features and content that are of interest to IT Pros for Windows 10, version 2004, also known as the Windows 10 May 2020 Update. This update also contains all features and fixes included in previous cumulative updates to Windows 10, version 1909.

To download and install Windows 10, version 2004, use Windows Update (Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update). For more information, see this video.

The month indicator for this release is 04 instead of 03 to avoid confusion with Windows releases in the year 2003.

Security

Windows Hello

Windows Hello is now supported as Fast Identity Online 2 (FIDO2) authenticator across all major browsers including Chrome and Firefox.

You can now enable passwordless sign-in for Microsoft accounts on your Windows 10 device by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options, and selecting On under Make your device passwordless. Enabling passwordless sign in will switch all Microsoft accounts on your Windows 10 device to modern authentication with Windows Hello Face, Fingerprint, or PIN.

Windows Hello PIN sign-in support is added to Safe mode.

Windows Hello for Business now has Hybrid Azure Active Directory support and phone number sign-in (MSA). FIDO2 security key support is expanded to Azure Active Directory hybrid environments, enabling enterprises with hybrid environments to take advantage of passwordless authentication. For more information, see Expanding Azure Active Directory support for FIDO2 preview to hybrid environments.

Windows Defender System Guard

In this release, Windows Defender System Guard enables an even higher level of System Management Mode (SMM) Firmware Protection that goes beyond checking the OS memory and secrets to additional resources like registers and IO.

With this improvement, the OS can detect a higher level of SMM compliance, enabling devices to be even more hardened against SMM exploits and vulnerabilities. This feature is forward-looking and currently requires new hardware available soon.

Windows Defender Application Guard

Windows Defender Application Guard has been available for Chromium-based Edge since early 2020.

Deployment

Windows Setup

Improvements in Windows Setup with this release also include:

• Reduced offline time during feature updates
• Improved controls for reserved storage
• Improved controls and diagnostics
• New recovery options

For more information, see Windows Setup enhancements in the Windows IT Pro Blog.

SetupDiag

In Windows 10, version 2004, SetupDiag is now automatically installed.

SetupDiag is a command-line tool that can help diagnose why a Windows 10 update failed. SetupDiag works by searching Windows Setup log files. When searching log files, SetupDiag uses a set of rules to match known issues.

During the upgrade process, Windows Setup will extract all its sources files to the %SystemDrive%$Windows.

bt\Sources directory. With Windows 10, version 2004 and later, Windows Setup now also installs SetupDiag.exe to this directory. If there is an issue with the upgrade, SetupDiag is automatically run to determine the cause of the failure. If the upgrade process proceeds normally, this directory is moved under %SystemDrive%\Windows.Old for cleanup.

Windows Autopilot

With this release, you can configure Windows Autopilot user-driven Hybrid Azure Active Directory join with VPN support. This support is also backported to Windows 10, version 1909 and 1903.

If you configure the language settings in the Autopilot profile and the device is connected to Ethernet, all scenarios will now skip the language, locale, and keyboard pages. In previous versions, this was only supported with self-deploying profiles.

Microsoft Endpoint Manager

An in-place upgrade wizard is available in Configuration Manager. For more information, see Simplifying Windows 10 deployment with Configuration Manager.

Windows Assessment and Deployment Toolkit (ADK)

Download the Windows ADK and Windows PE add-on for Windows 10, version 2004 here: Download and install the Windows ADK.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)

MDT version 8456 supports Windows 10, version 2004, but there is currently an issue that causes MDT to incorrectly detect that UEFI is present. There is an update available for MDT to address this issue.

For the latest information about MDT, see the MDT release notes.

Servicing

Delivery Optimization

Windows PowerShell cmdlets have been improved:

• Get-DeliveryOptimizationStatus has added the -PeerInfo option for a real-time peak behind the scenes on peer-to-peer activity (for example the peer IP Address, bytes received / sent).
• Get-DeliveryOptimizationLogAnalysis is a new cmdlet that provides a summary of the activity in your DO log (# of downloads, downloads from peers, overall peer efficiency). Use the -ListConnections option to for in-depth look at peer-to-peer connections.
• Enable-DeliveryOptimizationVerboseLogs is a new cmdlet that enables a greater level of logging detail to assist in troubleshooting.

• Enterprise network throttling is enhanced to optimize foreground vs. background throttling.
• Automatic cloud-based congestion detection is available for PCs with cloud service support.

The following Delivery Optimization policies are removed in this release:

• Percentage of Maximum Download Bandwidth (DOPercentageMaxDownloadBandwidth)
  • Reason: Replaced with separate policies for foreground and background.
• Max Upload Bandwidth (DOMaxUploadBandwidth)
  • Reason: Impacts uploads to internet peers only, which isn’t used in enterprises.
• Absolute max throttle (DOMaxDownloadBandwidth)
  • Reason: Separated to foreground and background.

Windows Update for Business

Windows Update for Business enhancements in this release include:

Intune console updates: target version is now available allowing you to specify which version of Windows 10 you want devices to move to. Additionally, this capability enables you to keep devices on their current version until they reach end of service. Check it out in Intune, also available as a Group Policy and Configuration Service Provider (CSP) policy.

Validation improvements: To ensure devices and end users stay productive and protected, Microsoft uses safeguard holds to block devices from updating when there are known issues that would impact that device. Also, to better enable IT administrators to validate on the latest release, we have created a new policy that enables admins to opt devices out of the built-in safeguard holds.

Update less: Last year, we changed update installation policies for Windows 10 to only target devices running a feature update version that is nearing end of service. As a result, many devices are only updating once a year. To enable all devices to make the most of this policy change, and to prevent confusion, we have removed deferrals from the Windows Update settings Advanced Options page starting on Windows 10, version 2004. If you wish to continue leveraging deferrals, you can use local Group Policy (Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Windows Update for Business > Select when Preview builds and Feature Updates are received or Select when Quality Updates are received). For more information about this change, see Simplified Windows Update settings for end users.

Networking

Wi-Fi 6 and WPA3

Windows now supports the latest Wi-Fi standards with Wi-Fi 6 and WPA3. Wi-Fi 6 gives you better wireless coverage and performance with added security. WPA3 provides improved Wi-Fi security and secures open networks.

In this release, Tunnel Extensible Authentication Protocol (TEAP) has been added as an authentication method to allow chaining together multiple credentials into a single EAP transaction. TEAP networks can be configured by enterprise policy.

Virtualization

Windows Sandbox

Windows Sandbox is an isolated desktop environment where you can install software without the fear of lasting impact to your device. This feature was released with Windows 10, version 1903. Windows 10, version 2004 includes bug fixes and enables even more control over configuration.

• MappedFolders now supports a destination folder. Previously no destination could be specified, it was always mapped to the Sandbox desktop.
• AudioInput/VideoInput settings now enable you to share their host microphone or webcam with the Sandbox.
• ProtectedClient is a new security setting that runs the connection to the Sandbox with extra security settings enabled. This is disabled by default due to issues with copy & paste.
• PrinterRedirection: You can now enable and disable host printer sharing with the Sandbox.
• ClipboardRedirection: You can now enable and disable host clipboard sharing with the Sandbox.
• MemoryInMB adds the ability to specify the maximum memory usage of the Sandbox.

Windows Media Player is also added back to the Sandbox image in this release.

Windows Sandbox also has improved accessibility in this release, including:

• Microphone support is available.
• Added functionality to configure the audio input device via the Windows Sandbox config file.
• A Shift + Alt + PrintScreen key sequence that activates the ease of access dialog for enabling high contrast mode.
• A ctrl + alt + break key sequence that allows entering/exiting fullscreen mode.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

With this release, memory that is no longer in use in a Linux VM will be freed back to Windows. Previously, a WSL VM’s memory could grow, but would not shrink when no longer needed.

WSL2 support has been added for ARM64 devices if your device supports virtualization.

For a full list of updates to WSL, see the WSL release notes.

Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD)

Windows 10 is an integral part of WVD, and several enhancements are available in the Spring 2020 update. Check out Windows Virtual Desktop documentation for the latest and greatest information, as well as the WVD Virtual Event from March.

Microsoft Edge

Read about plans for the new Microsoft Edge and other innovations announced at Build 2020 and What’s new at Microsoft Edge Insider.

Also see information about the exciting new Edge browser here.

Application settings

This release enables explicit Control over restarting apps at sign-in (Build 18965) that were open when you restart your PC.

Windows Shell

Several enhancements to the Windows 10 user interface are implemented in this release:

Cortana

Cortana has been updated and enhanced in Windows 10, version 2004:

Productivity: chat-based UI gives you the ability to interact with Cortana using typed or spoken natural language queries to easily get information across Microsoft 365 and stay on track. Productivity focused capabilities such as finding people profiles, checking schedules, joining meetings, and adding to lists in Microsoft To Do are currently available to English speakers in the US.

• In the coming months, with regular app updates through the Microsoft Store, we’ll enhance this experience to support wake word invocation and enable listening when you say “Cortana,” offer more productivity capabilities such as surfacing relevant emails and documents to help you prepare for meetings, and expand supported capabilities for international users.

Security: tightened access to Cortana so that you must be securely logged in with your work or school account or your Microsoft account before using Cortana. Because of this tightened access, some consumer skills including music, connected home, and third-party skills will no longer be available. Additionally, users get cloud-based assistance services that meet Office 365’s enterprise-level privacy, security, and compliance promises as set out in the Online Services Terms.

Move the Cortana window: drag the Cortana window to a more convenient location on your desktop.

For updated information, see the Microsoft 365 blog.

Windows Search

Windows Search is improved in several ways. For more information, see Supercharging Windows Search.

Virtual Desktops

There is a new Update on Virtual Desktop renaming (Build 18975), where, instead of getting stuck with the system-issued names like Desktop 1, you can now rename your virtual desktops more freely.

Bluetooth pairing

Pairing Bluetooth devices with your computer will occur through notifications, so you won’t need to go to the Settings app to finish pairing. Other improvements include faster pairing and device name display. For more information, see Improving your Bluetooth pairing experience.

Reset this PC

The ‘reset this PC’ recovery function now includes a cloud download option.

Task Manager

The following items are added to Task Manager in this release:

• GPU Temperature is available on the Performance tab for devices with a dedicated GPU card.
• Disk type is now listed for each disk on the Performance tab.

Graphics & display

DirectX

New DirectX 12 features are available in this release.

2-in-1 PCs

See Introducing a new tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs! (Build 18970) for details on a new tablet experience for two-in-one convertible PCs that is now available. The screen will be optimized for touch when you detach your two-in-one’s keyboard, but you’ll still keep the familiar look of your desktop without interruption.

Specialized displays

With this update, devices running Windows 10 Enterprise or Windows 10 Pro for Workstations with multiple displays can be configured to prevent Windows from using a display, making it available for a specialized purpose.

• Fixed-function arcade & gaming such as cockpit, driving, flight, and military simulators
• Medical imaging devices with custom panels, such as grayscale X-ray displays
• Video walls like those displayed in Microsoft Store
• Dedicated video monitoring
• Monitor panel testing and validation
• Independent Hardware Vendor (IHV) driver testing and validation

To prevent Windows from using a display, choose Settings > Display and click Advanced display settings. Select a display to view or change, and then set the Remove display from desktop setting to On. The display will now be available for a specialized use.

Desktop Analytics

Desktop Analytics is a cloud-connected service, integrated with Configuration Manager that provides data-driven insights to the management of Windows endpoints in your organization. Desktop Analytics requires a Windows E3 or E5 license, or a Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license.

For information about Desktop Analytics and this release of Windows 10, see What’s new in Desktop Analytics.