Windows 10 1903 Missing Deferment Feature and Quality Update Option

This problem happened 5 months before Windows 10 version 1909 was released. So upgrading to Windows 10 1909 wasn’t an option. It also would not have solved this issue.

The reason I identified this problem is due to the fact I had two identical instances of Windows 10, running two different builds, of Windows 10 version 1903. I noticed one install had the options, and the other did not.

I recently ran into an issue, with my legacy system, at the time I had the problem it was running a build released before May 29, 2019.

When attempting to update the legacy system I noticed the option to defer feature updates and quality updates was missing. I had manually performed the update to Windows 10 version 1903 using the upgrade assistance, in an attempt to solve a problem, I had with a .NET Framework application.

At the time I was running two Windows 10 installation on two different systems. One was a clean Windows 10 version 1903 installation while the other was Windows 10 version 1809 which I manually upgraded to Windows 10 version 1903 in order to solve the unrelated problem.

I knew something was wrong when the legacy system didn't display the deferment options yet the new system did.

Why are options to defer feature updates and quality updates missing from the Advanced Windows Update options? The system had previously been running 1809 with those options set to 60 and 30 days respectfully.

It appears that this issue stems from a possible known issue caused by DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays and DeferQualityUpdatesPeriodInDays keys within Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings being set to something other than 0.

Since Microsoft has not confirmed this is an issue with Windows 10 version 1903, I can only go by the confirmed cases I have read about, it does not appear to be a widespread issue though.

Source: Windows 10, version 1903 and Windows Server, version 1903

Confirmed, tested in Windows 10 Pro (x86) build 18362.116.

If you set a non-zero number of days to defer features updates or quality updates then they disappear from the Advanced options.

It's not a 'timeframe', as such. The contents of these Windows Update settings pages are only refreshed when you check for updates, either the automatic check or manually. Set a number of days then check for updates will make the option(s) disappear straight away.

Using Regedit to set 'DeferFeaturesUpdatePeriodInDays' or 'DeferQualtyUpdatePeriodInDays' back to zero in the key HKLM\SOTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings will make them visible again (after another 'check for updates').

KB4497935, the CU for 18362.145, does not fix this bug.

I was able to confirm this was the case by changing the value of DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays to 0 and performed a reboot and the option to defer feature updates returned. As you can see the option to defer quality updates is still missing.

Once I set both DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays and DeferQualityUpdatesPeriodInDays to 0 and performed a restart both options finally returned.

Sources:

• Can't Defer Feature Updates in v1903 Windows 10 Pro?

• Windows 10 1903: the case of the missing update deferral options

• Known and Resolved issues for Windows 10 May 2019 Update version 1903