Windows 10 Version 2004: Forced upgrade without user consent

[German]The new Windows 10 May 2020 Update (Version 2004) has been generally available since May 27, 2020 and is being rolled out only slowly. But I have already seen reports that systems are automatically updated to Windows 10 Version 2004 without any user interaction.


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Feature update: This is how it should work

Since Windows 10 version 1903, feature updates should be offered as optional. The user must explicitly trigger the download and installation, as shown in the following screenshot for version 1903.

Feature updates in Windows 10 May 2019 Update
(Feature updates in Windows 10 May 2019 Update, Source: Microsoft)

Starting with Windows 10 May 2019 Update, Version 1903, Microsoft grants users in all versions a possibility to postpone quality updates by 5 x 7 days (35 days). I had described this in the article Windows 10 May 2019 Update brings back Update control. At the same time Microsoft has introduced a second, positive innovation. Functional updates can be postponed by the user until shortly before the end of the support period of the installation (see Windows 10 V1903: Update Control Inconsistencies – Part 2).

A reader's feedback

End of May 2020 German blog reader H.v.H. contacted me and reported a strange observation (thanks for that). He writes:

Hello Günter,

without any action on my part, MS installed the 2004 update.
Only the reboot was still pending.

Procedure:

within 6 min 2 reboots
blue screen with "Updates for you are being prepared
after 7:30 min in total (SSD hard disk)
started Edge on my normal screen view
Firefox remained the default browser
tested the scanner: ok (driver works)
of the 86 installed programs, 35 got the current installation date (4 of them from MS)
Everything seems to be going as usual.

At the same time I received this comment here in my blog. EP refers to a discussion at askwoody.com where the same thing happened to a user. And Susan Bradley also puts together some observations of this kind in this askwoody short article. This is addressed also here.


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Another reader observation about defer update

In the blog post Windows 10 Version 2004/Windows Server 2004 released I wrote that all feature updates are optional, and that the user need to click the Download and install link, to triger an upgrade. Blog-reader Martin responded with the following observation.

Yes and no… this is only true (at least according to my tests 1903->1909) if the setting "Delay function updates and/or quality updates" is set
is not used – i.e. remains at 0 days. If this is not the case (1 day delay is enough) a new version will be installed automatically.

This may have been an explanation, but it doesn't quite fit together. Some users were probably with delay 0 in Windows 10 Home V190x.

Have update defer options been removed?

On reddit.com there is this post where someone asks if the delay options for feature updates in Windows 10 version 2004 have been removed.

Has MS removed option to defer feature updates for 365 days from Pro 2004?

I have just clean installed Pro 2004 (new iso today) on a pc and the option to defer feature updates for 365 days is missing.

Comparing registry with 1909, it is quite different and I have a suspicion you can now only defer feature updates on enterprise as the deferfeaturesupdate keyword has moved into a folder that seems only to apply for business users

Although one respondent explains that delay options for feature updates have not been required since the 1903 version, the answer is no longer necessary. But the experiences outlined above show me a different picture. Something doesn't fit together anymore. Do you have had similar experiences or have an explanation?

Similar articles:
Windows 10 Version 2004/Windows Server 2004 released
Windows 10 Mai 2020 Update released at MSDN & for OEM
Refreshed Windows 10 V2004 ISOs released on MSDN/MVS
Windows 10 Version 2004: Deprecated/removed features
Upgrade Block to Windows 10 2004 for devices with Core isolation (HVCI)

Windows 10: Issues with update options – Part 1
Windows 10 V1903: Update Control Inconsistencies – Part 2


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10 Responses to Windows 10 Version 2004: Forced upgrade without user consent

  1. Pingback: Are Win10 version 1909 users being pushed onto version 2004? @ AskWoody

  2. Joe B says:

    Did that to me…Lenovo T430 with version 1909.
    I had set the registry to not allow new feature editions, but MS has different ideas, I guess. None of the "features" in 2004 are of any use to me. I don't use any of them.
    It popped the message for restart of the new version after downloading that I didn't even know about, which I don't want and didn't ask for.
    I set defer all updates before I did a restart and it didn't install but did have the "welcome to windows" introduction start up as part of the trash left behind.
    It still is at version 1909, I'll see what happens on 7/2/2020 when it will want to try updates again.

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  4. Huber Markus says:

    We are using wuinstall (http://www.wuinstall.com).
    Here you can also force a upgrade via command line.

    Step 1:
    Upgrade Drivers:
    wuinstall.exe /install /driveronly

    Step 2:
    Upgrade Windows
    wuinstall.exe /install /forcedownload

    They are also having a gui solution now (https://www.xeox.com)

  5. Nirantali says:

    For me it was even worse, it not only downloaded it from alone, but also started it from alone while actively hours and popped up a red window with only [Reboot in a Hour][Reboot now] so the 2004 Update was literally forced upon me. And now I have a bunch of error like a corrupted external RAID, external HDD that are accesses every 2 second and don't sleep anymore, tons of ESENT errors and whatever. But especially the corrupted RAID is a problem and I make MS responsible for, because they did force it upon me and force rebooted during actively hours.

  6. Pingback: The Windows 10 ‘End-of-Service’ myth – Computer World

  7. EP says:

    this recent story about v2004 being "automatically pushed" came out:
    https://www.askwoody.com/2020/patch-lady-anyone-else-getting-2004/

    that appears to happen without having to click "check for updates"

  8. Saadman Ariq says:

    This happed to me as well and I don't want to update to 2004 as it has a lot of unsolved issues. Yet they are forcing me to update even after I am turning it off from registry. Don't to what should I do now :/

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