How to prevent Windows 11 installing

Sounds bizarre I know - here we all are finding work arounds to install Windows 11 on machines that aren't supported. And I have one machine here (teenager's gaming PC) which is supported. And Windows 11 just tried to download through Windows updates. He wants to stay on Windows 10 for now. So how do I stop it? I turned Windows updates off on 5th October. Have done a system image (just in case). Turned windows updates back on again today and the banner came up saying you're eligible for Windows 11. It then started downloading a lot of drivers and said when this has finished Windows 11 will install. So I turned Windows updates off again.

So how do I stop it downloading please (and still have Windows updates for W10)?

If you are in the insider program i guess delay it for 7 days then repeat it every 7 days

No just standard Windows 10 Pro install. The update came in Windows updates.

I'm not sure I would trust an app that isn't in the Microsoft Store.

Winaero Tweaker is an excellent piece of software - well respected, many people use it with no problems.

As to the OP, download an app called 'Windows Update MiniTool' here:


On the left hand side, at the very bottom, change 'Automatic Updates' to 'Disabled'. Instead of running Windows Updates from within 'Settings' use MIniTool instead. You can then choose to hide the updates you don't want to install. The rest you can choose to install from within the app.

HTH.

If you're running Windows 10 Pro, go to gpedit.msc, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, then Windows Update. If I recall correctly, there's an entry under Windows for Business that will let you prevent Windows from installing a Feature Update and still download Quality updates.

Tink009 said:

If you're running Windows 10 Pro, go to gpedit.msc, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, then Windows Update. If I recall correctly, there's an entry under Windows for Business that will let you prevent Windows from installing a Feature Update and still download Quality updates.

Click to expand...

Thanks - I'll try that. Thanks for the other tips as well. I'll try tink's first as it doesn't mean installing anything (and it's not my PC so I'd need permission!)

Hazel123 said:

Thanks - I'll try that. Thanks for the other tips as well. I'll try tink's first as it doesn't mean installing anything (and it's not my PC so I'd need permission!)

Click to expand...

It is what I did on my wife's PC until I finish figuring out Windows 11. Just went and checked. It's Local Machine Policy>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Update>Windows Update for Business.

I am trying to stop it on my compatible computers.
I don't want this on any other computer.
Windows 11 is a mess. But I'm sure you already know that.

Stigg said:

I am trying to stop it on my compatible computers.
I don't want this on any other computer.
Windows 11 is a mess. But I'm sure you already know that.

Click to expand...

Well now I’ve used it a bit I think it’s speedy and productive. I don’t like the start menu - because it’s not a menu/list - but does the job.

Main reason for preventing install is it’s not my PC and the teenager wants to keep W10 (he took one look at the start menu and said he preferred the W10 one).

As @Tink009 suggested, you can use the Select the target Feature Update version group policy. Formerly you'd enter, for example, 21H1 to "pin" the OS to Windows 10 21H1. Windows 11 introduced an ambiguity (there can be both Windows 10 21H2 and Windows 11 21H2, for example) so KB5005101 added a new field to the policy letting you specify Windows 10 or Windows 11, along with the Target Version. There is a good tutorial on tenforums but @Brink hasn't gotten around to adding the change.

Run gpedit and navigate to Administrative Templates/Windows Update/Windows Update for Business/Select the target Feature Update version. Enable it, and specify Windows 10 in the product version field, and 21H1 for Target Version for Feature Updates. It's an open question as to what happens if you leave out the Target Version, specifying only The Windows product version.



Hopefully, after a reboot, Windows Update will stop trying to install Windows 11. But it can be persistent once it has started, so you may need to reset Windows Update. There is a tutorial on tenforums for that too. Good luck!

grumpus said:

As @Tink009 suggested, you can use the Select the target Feature Update version group policy. Formerly you'd enter, for example, 21H1 to "pin" the OS to Windows 10 21H1. Windows 11 introduced an ambiguity (there can be both Windows 10 21H2 and Windows 11 21H2, for example) so KB5005101 added a new field to the policy letting you specify Windows 10 or Windows 11, along with the Target Version. There is a good tutorial on tenforums but @Brink hasn't gotten around to adding the change.

Run gpedit and navigate to Administrative Templates/Windows Update/Windows Update for Business/Select the target Feature Update version. Enable it, and specify Windows 10 in the product version field, and 21H1 for Target Version for Feature Updates. It's an open question as to what happens if you leave out the Target Version, specifying only The Windows product version.

Hopefully, after a reboot, Windows Update will stop trying to install Windows 11. But it can be persistent once it has started, so you may need to reset Windows Update. There is a tutorial on tenforums for that too. Good luck!

Click to expand...

Tutorial now updated to include 21H1.

Brink said:

Tutorial now updated to include 21H1. :)

How to Specify Target Feature Update Version in Windows 10

A new TargetReleaseVersion policy available in Windows 10 version 1803 and higher allows you to specify which feature update version of Windows 10 you would like your computer to move to and/or stay on until the version reaches end of service or you recon

www.tenforums.com

Click to expand...

Wow, that was fast! But I'm not seeing the change adding the 'Windows product version' field, even after clearing my browser cache. Maybe it needs time to propagate, I'll check back later. Thanks!

Brink said:

Tutorial now updated to include 21H1. :)

How to Specify Target Feature Update Version in Windows 10

A new TargetReleaseVersion policy available in Windows 10 version 1803 and higher allows you to specify which feature update version of Windows 10 you would like your computer to move to and/or stay on until the version reaches end of service or you recon

www.tenforums.com

Click to expand...

Great! Thanks.

I switched off TPM2 in my bios because I don't want to migrate to Windows 11 until I have to. However my already installed Windows 11 VM didn't notice. Which was nice.