Solved Did everyone miss a recent change to 24H2's OOBE Updates?

Normally I use a reg key ("DisableCloudOptimizedContent") to skip over 24H2's forced OOBE Updates, so this "Cancel feature and security updates" option is new to me. Guessing MS updated the current OOBE KB to allow you to skip over the long wait for download & install.

That's good to know. I'll have to experiment with this. In my answer files I've been disabling network interfaces before it gets to this point preventing it from installing quality updates during setup and then re-enabling it afterwards so that the network is ready at the end of setup.

While MS still hasn't provided a GPO to disable updates, this looks like a deliberate "dark pattern" to claim MS offered you free choices, but obviously you didn't notice the last line was actually a mouse clickable option.

Instead of using a normal button. Very sneaky.

This is the way that I came up to work around it. It's not pretty, but it works for me:

Add to pass 4 specialize > Windows-Deployment > RunSynchronous > RunSynchronousCommand with the following values:

Order: 1 (if 1 is in use, use next available number)
Path: powershell.exe -Command "Get-NetAdapter | Disable-NetAdapter -Confirm:$false"

This will disable all network adapters which will also cause bypassing of Windows updates during setup.

Next, we need to re-enable network adapters at the end of setup. To do so, add this to your autounattend.xml answer file:

Add to pass 7 oobe System > Windows-Shell-Setup > FirstLogonCommands > RunSynchronous > SynchronousCommand with the following values:

Order: 1 (if 1 is in use, use next available number)
Path: powershell.exe -Command "Get-NetAdapter | Enable-NetAdapter -Confirm:$false"

Hidden in the June 2025 Preview Update release notes:

[Windows Setup]

• New! Admins can configure whether a new device gets critical updates during the out-of-box experience (OOBE).

Click to expand...

Yeah, still no useful instructions on how to do this.

garlin said:

Hidden in the June 2025 Preview Update release notes:


Yeah, still no useful instructions on how to do this.

Click to expand...

That would be a good bit of information to have. I worked out my own solution for doing this in my answer files, but it's a bit ugly.