{"id":4192,"date":"2026-01-06T08:35:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T07:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.batteriedeportable.com\/guides-et-conseils\/disable-windows-updates-battery-life-guide\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T08:35:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T07:35:24","slug":"disable-windows-updates-battery-life-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.batterylaptop.co.uk\/guides\/disable-windows-updates-battery-life-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Controlling charging time: how system updates affect your battery life"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest annoyances with Windows is its tendency to start updates at the worst possible moment, forcing you to wait before you can shut down or restart. These interruptions not only disrupt your work, they also place a <\/span>heavy workload on components that then draw energy from your battery at a rapid rate<\/b>. To avoid this, there are several ways to take back control over when updates are installed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Option 1: disable the Service Manager<\/span><\/h2>\n

For a complete shutdown of automatic updates, the most reliable method is to change the settings of the Windows Update service itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Use the <\/span>Win + R<\/b> shortcut and type <\/span>services.msc<\/span> to open the Services management panel.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Find the <\/span>\u201cWindows Update\u201d<\/b> entry and open the properties window (double-click).<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. In the General tab, change the Startup type option to <\/span>\u201cDisabled\u201d<\/b> and confirm by clicking Apply.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. In the Recovery tab, to ensure the service does not try to restart, change the actions for <\/span>\u201cFirst failure\u201d<\/b>, <\/span>\u201cSecond failure\u201d<\/b> and <\/span>\u201cSubsequent failures\u201d<\/b> to <\/span>\u201cTake no action\u201d<\/b>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Stopping and disabling the main service<\/b> ensures that the update process will no longer start without your say\u2011so.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Option 2: trick the system by extending the pause<\/span><\/h2>\n

    Windows uses a variable to determine the maximum time updates can be paused. You can edit this variable via the Registry Editor to set an extremely long defer period.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Launch the Registry Editor by typing <\/span>regedit<\/span> in the Run box (<\/span>Win + R<\/b>).<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Go to: <\/span>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\WindowsUpdate\\UX\\Settings<\/span>.<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Create a <\/span>new DWORD (32\u2011bit) value<\/b>, which must be named exactly <\/span>\u201cFlightSettingsMaxPauseDays\u201d<\/b>.<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. Double\u2011click it, choose <\/span>Decimal<\/b> as the base, and enter a high number such as <\/span>11 500<\/b>. <\/span>This trick pushes the date of the next update back by decades<\/b>, giving you the freedom to decide.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      For users comfortable with the command line, you can achieve the same result using Windows PowerShell:<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      • Open <\/span>Windows PowerShell as administrator<\/b>.<\/span><\/li>\n
      • Run the following command (change the <\/span>12000<\/span> value if you want a different pause length): <\/span>reg add \u00ab\u00a0HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\WindowsUpdate\\UX\\Settings\u00a0\u00bb \/v FlightSettingsMaxPauseDays \/t reg_dword \/d 12000 \/f<\/span><\/li>\n
      • After running it, you can check in the Windows Update interface that <\/span>the defer period is now set to a very long time<\/b>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n