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Microsoft releases optional tool that lets users hide or block any update for Windows 10 or hardware drivers
The decision made by Microsoft to not let its Windows 10 Home users to change any software updates imposed upon them has landed the company into controversy. Windows 10 Home offers no way to block security updates and new features that Microsoft sends in the background. At the same time, Pro and Enterprise users have been given an option to choose and filter the updates to be applied and when they get applied.
Being used to years of being able to select and choose from a menu of updates each month, it caused a huge outcry from Windows 10 testers.
What if Windows Update pushes an update to your system that causes more problems than it fixes? If you don’t have the option to review updates, then you won’t have the chance to wait and see if some updates have negative impacts.
Such an update had caused a stir in the news a few days ago. According to a report by Forbes, a new Nvidia driver was released last week and caused many problems for its users. The Nvidia driver update 353.54 broke multi-monitor setups in different ways, SLI (dual card) configurations “and can even stop PCs booting entirely”.
When Windows 10 arrives this week, Windows Update won’t include the option of selecting and choosing from menu updates. However, Microsoft has released a tool that can hide or block unwanted Windows 10 updates, says ZDNet reports. This tool has been released as a “well hidden” trouble-shooter package named KB3073930 and works with the final (10240) preview build. KB3073930 has a simple interface that asks you first if you want to navigate to a list of updates that you can hide, or to a list of previously hidden updates. You can then toggle updates with check boxes on the next page of the UI.
The package was digitally signed on June 15, and the accompanying Knowledge Base article is dated July 7, just a few weeks ago. The package is assigned for use with the Windows 10 Insider Preview. However, based on the performance of its final (10240) preview build, it looks like it should work with the final release beginning July 29.
Here’s what the troubleshooter looks like when you download and run it:
And here’s the interface for hiding specific updates which more or less looks like the present Microsoft update interface. If you have already ascertained that a driver or a Windows update of a Windows Update package is causing problems, you need to remove the problem driver or uninstall the defective update. Then select its entry from this list.
Another thing to ponder about is that this tool was made available to Windows Insiders for testing Windows 10 builds. With the launch around the corner, until now there are no signs of Microsoft withdrawing the tool, but that does not provide guarantee that the tool will always be available.
Source: ZDNet