Windows Update for Business Group Policy Changes for Windows 10 1607

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If you have deployed Windows 10 to your organisation then you might be familiar with the new Group Policy setting that allowed you to defer the upgrade of Windows 10. These policy setting also know as “Windows Update for Business” allows you to delay by up to 8 months the OS upgrade that Microsoft delivers to you via Windows Update (see below).

DeferUpgradesandUpdateGPEdit

DeferUpgradesandUpdate

However, with the release of Windows 10 1607 the Group Policy setting “Defer Upgrade and Updates” has been completely removed and replaced by new policy settings under “Windows Update>Defer Windows Updates” (see below).

DeferUpgradesandUpdateGPEdit1

The two new policy settings called “Select when Feature Update are received” and “Select when Quality Update are received” (see below).

SelectWhenFeatureUpdateAreReceived SelectWhenQualityUpdatesAreReceived

NOTE: Some times when Microsoft release a new OS they might rename the GPO setting but still keep the underlying Registry Key the same. This means that the name of the policy setting has changed but the actually setting is preserved when upgrading. But this is *NOT* the case. Therefore, you might want to go back to your ADMX Group Policy Central store de-configure the “Defer Upgrades and Update” GPO setting before upgrade the policy files.

Alternatively, you could just leave the policy setting configured and do the ADMX upgrade and just live with the “Extra Registry Settings” message in GPMC (See below).

Note: This policy will still apply with the “Extra Registry Settings” will still apply to the Windows 10 1511 build.

Windows Update Extra Registry Keys

Then at a later stage once all your Windows 10 1511 computer have upgrade to 1607 you can either quickly swap the “WindowsUpdate.admx” and “WindowsUpdate.adml” in the central store and then just de-configure the policy setting to clear the above “Extra Registry Settings” message from the policy.

Author: Alan Burchill

Microsoft MVP (Group Policy)

40 thoughts on “Windows Update for Business Group Policy Changes for Windows 10 1607

  1. pply why i dont have this setting on my DC ? ( Defer Upgrades and Updates )
    Allow Automatic Updates immediate installation
    Allow non-administrators to receive update notifications
    Allow signed updates from an intranet Microsoft update service location
    Automatic Updates detection frequency
    Configure Automatic Updates
    Delay Restart for scheduled installations
    Do not adjust default option to ‘Install Updates and Shut Down’ in Shut Down Windows dialog box
    Do not display ‘Install Updates and Shut Down’ option in Shut Down Windows dialog box
    Enable client-side targeting
    Enabling Windows Update Power Management to automatically wake up the system to install scheduled updates
    No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations
    Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations
    Reschedule Automatic Updates scheduled installations
    Specify intranet Microsoft update service location
    Turn on recommended updates via Automatic Updates
    Turn on Software Notifications

  2. I have done this you suggested:
    “Then at a later stage once all your Windows 10 1511 computer have upgrade to 1607 you can either quickly swap the “WindowsUpdate.admx” and “WindowsUpdate.adml” in the central store and then just de-configure the policy setting to clear the above “Extra Registry Settings” message from the policy.”

    have i to wait until all the clients update the policy from the central server? before replacing the admx with the 1607 version again?
    Thanks.

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