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You'll soon be able to pause Windows 10 Home updates for up to 7 days

Microsoft is testing new features to help prevent updates from running at inconvenient times.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter
Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.
Marrian Zhou
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Windows 10 Home will enable users to pause updates for up to seven days. 

Microsoft

Hate getting locked out of your Windows computer while waiting for it to update? Microsoft is trying to make that a thing of the past.

Windows 10 Home, the consumer version of Microsoft's latest operating system, will soon let you pause updates for up to seven days (and maybe more). The new update experience, spotted earlier by tech site Thurrott, is being tested in Microsoft's Windows Insiders program and is expected to roll out to mainstream users in April..

Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Microsoft has been working on fixing the update experience -- a longtime user complaint -- so people don't have to stop what they're doing or wait around for a computer to boot because it updated at a bad time.

When the update becomes available, you'll be able to pause updates by going to Settings, Update & Security and then Windows Update. Pause can be set for either a predefined number of days or until a specific date. Microsoft is also introducing Intelligent Active Hours, which will automatically adjust active hours -- set times you tell a computer not to reboot because you're likely using it -- based on device activity.

Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise already let users pause updates

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