Facing problems with automatic Windows updates, you can temporarily hide/block them. Here’s how to hide updates in Windows 10 and 11.
Microsoft frequently releases updates to patch security vulnerabilities and improve features and stability. However, specific updates can mess with your system and cause instability from time to time. This is especially true for automatic driver updates on systems with older graphics cards, like the switchable laptop graphics card.
In those situations, you can pause updates or you can temporarily hide the Windows updates. Once an update is hidden, Windows will no longer download and install it automatically. In this article, we’ll show you two methods to hide updates on Windows 10 & 11. Let’s get started.
Note: Hiding Windows updates is just a temporary solution and they are automatically installed on Microsoft releasing the next cumulative update.
1. Hide Updates Using Show and Hide Update Tool
Microsoft created a simple GUI tool called Show and Hide updates. Using this tool, you can hide any update you want with just a few clicks. Though the tool is mainly intended to hide driver updates, you can also use it to hide other updates.
1. First, download the Show and Hide Update tool. Once downloaded, double-click on the file. Being a portable application, you don’t have to install it.
2. In the main window, click the “Next” button to continue.
3. Since we want to hide the updates, click on the “Hide Updates” option.
4. The application will now scan your system and list all the available updates. Select the checkbox next to the update you want to hide and click on the “Next” button.
5. The application will now hide the selected update automatically. Once hidden, you will see the “fixed” message on the next screen. Click on the “Close” button, and you are done.
1.1 Unhide Updates Using Show and Hide Updates Tool
In the future, if you want to unhide the hidden update, follow the below steps.
1. Open the Show and Hide updates tool, click on the “Next” button, and click on the “Show Hidden Updates” option.
2. The application will scan the system and show all the hidden Windows updates. Select the checkbox next to it and click on the “Next” button to unhide an update.
3. As soon as you click on the button, the update will be unhidden. Once the update is unhidden, Windows 10 will automatically download the update as and when needed.
That is it.
Use PowerShell Command to Hide Windows 10 & 11 Updates
If you are a PowerShell guy, you can use the PowerShell commands to hide or unhide Windows updates quickly. Though the process is easy, you need to download and import a Windows Update module to use the PowerShell command. It is pretty easy to do. Let me show you how.
1. First, we need to install the Windows Update PowerShell Module. We can do that directly from PowerShell itself. So, right-click the Start menu and select the “Windows Terminal (Admin)” or “Windows PowerShell (Admin)” option.
2. In the PowerShell tab/window, execute the below command. If PowerShell prompts you to install the Nuget module, type “Y” to continue. After installing the Nuget module, run the below command again to install the Windows Update PowerShell module.
If you are wondering, the -Force flag will remove all the prompts and make the installation smooth. You can remove the -Force flag and execute the command if you want.
Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force
- By default, PowerShell uses a Restricted execution policy that blocks script execution. Since we want to execute a script, change the PowerShell execution policy from Restricted to RemoteSigned.
Though we’ve added the PSWindowsUpdate module. We need to import it formally. To do that, execute the below command. If the module is imported successfully, you will not see any output.
Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate
Before you can hide an update using PowerShell, you need to know its name or KB number. So, use the below command to list all the available updates for your system. The command might take a few seconds to return the results.
Get-WindowsUpdate
To hide an update using the KB number, highlight the KB number of the update you want to hide using the mouse and right-click inside the PowerShell window to copy the number.
Next, use the command below to hide the target update. Replace KB_Number with the actual KB number.
Hide-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID KB_Number
When prompted, type A and press Enter. If the update is successfully hidden, you will see “H” under the update status.
If there is no KB number available for an update, you can use the update title. For instance, driver updates often don’t have a KD number. To do that, get a list of all the updates using the Get-WUList cmdlet. Next, copy the update title from the PowerShell window. Just a part of the title is enough. Just make sure that it is unique from other update titles. For instance, I’m copying “Realtek Semiconductor.” There is no further update with those letters/words in the list.
Next, use the below command to hide the update. Don’t forget to replace “UpdateTitle” with the actual update title.
Hide-WindowsUpdate -Title "UpdateTitle"
When asked for confirmation, type A and press Enter to confirm the change. Once the update is hidden, you will see “H” under the update status.
2.1 PowerShell Command to Unhide Updates
To unhide an update, use one of the below two commands.
- Using KB number
Hide-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID KB_Number -HideStatus:$false
- Using the update title
Hide-WindowsUpdate -Title "UpdateTitle" -HideStatus:$false
That is all. It is that simple to hide updates in Windows 10 using PowerShell or a first-party tool.
If you like this article, check out how to check Windows updates size and how to change a network location from public to private in Windows 10.