Microsoft is testing a long-awaited feature in Windows 11 preview builds: the freedom to pause Windows updates.Currently, Windows 11 only allows you to pause updates for a maximum of 5 weeks, and the upcoming new version will replace the existing drop-down menu with a calendar. Users can specify the specific date to resume updates, and there is no longer a hard upper limit on the duration of the pause.
Since the release of Windows 10 in 2015, Microsoft has implemented an essentially mandatory update policy for ordinary users, and users cannot completely turn off automatic updates.
The last time users had nearly complete control over updates was back in Windows 8.1, when users could turn off updates directly in the Control Panel.
In the eleven years since then, forced updates have been one of the pain points with the highest number of complaints from Windows users.
This feature change was discovered by @phantomofearth in the latest Windows 11 preview. Microsoft has not announced specific details yet, including the final upper limit of the suspension period and how the system will handle it when the Windows version reaches the end of support date.
Considering that Microsoft has a history of forcing upgrades on older versions of Windows, it remains to be seen how the new strategy will be implemented.