One of the controversies surrounding Microsoft's Windows 10 is the decision not to allow 'Home' users to swerve any software updates foisted upon them. It is Microsoft's plan to send feature and security updates to Windows 10 Home users in the background, meanwhile Pro and Enterprise users would have an option to choose and filter what updates are applied and when they get applied.
What if Windows Update pushes an update to your system that causes more problems than it fixes? If you don't have the option to review updates then you won't have the chance to wait and see if some updates have negative impacts.
A couple of days ago such an update was causing a stir in the news. Forbes reports that a new Nvidia driver was released last week and caused numerous headaches for users. The Nvidia driver update 353.54 variously broke multi-monitor setups, SLI (dual card) configurations "and can even stop PCs booting entirely". Ouch.
Now ZDNet reports that Microsoft has released a tool which can hide or block unwanted Windows 10 updates. It is noted that this tool has been released as a "well hidden" trouble-shooter package and works with the final (10240) preview build. KB3073930 has a simple interface which first asks you whether you want to navigate to a list of updates you can hide, or to a list of previously hidden updates(see screengrab below). On the next page of the UI you can toggle updates with check boxes.
It's a solution; albeit one that requires more considered steps from the end user. It will surely be welcomed by Windows 10 Home users of a more technical nature. In a related nugget of information, ZDNet's Ed Bott writes that System Restore is turned off by default in Windows 10. Turning it on will give the user an easy way to roll back from problematic updates like the Nvidia driver noted above. Then, thanks to this tool, you can delay the Nvidia driver update until it is replaced with a well received and tested one.
