Windows Updates may delay booting or field work

28 Jun 2016

Microsoft Windows 10 may take a long time to boot or when performing a Restart while it is installing updates, sometimes without providing any indication that it is installing updates. The screen may be black (display backlight off), blank (display backlight on but nothing on screen), or with a blue image (with no other indicators) and may not complete for several minutes. Sometimes you can do a Ctrl-Alt-Del (Windows+Power) then select Power > Restart to get a better indication of what the operating system is doing. Depending on what updates are being installed, this delay in booting can range from less than a minute to 20 minutes or more for very large update(s).

In additional to charging every night and weekend as we recommend, you may also want to perform a Restart each night to allow the best chance for updates to install while the device is not in use. Otherwise, there are alternative methods to avoid such a potential delay when booting or doing a Restart on the Mesa 2. If your organization allows it, you could change from the automatic installation of updates to manually running Windows update. This is done under Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced options (may be disabled depending on security policies). Please note that allowing automatic updates ensures you always have the latest fixes, security patches, and features from Microsoft and is the factory default and recommended setting.

Update: Jan 2017

To avoid delays while booting/resuming or when wanting to perform field work, Microsoft recommends that you properly set your Active Hours so downloading and installing of updates should not occur during that time. This is as described at the following web page.

http://www.howtogeek.com/264325/how-to-set-active-hours-so-windows-10-wont-restart-at-a-bad-time/

If you want to further control downloading of updates, additional details are provided at this web page.

http://www.howtogeek.com/224471/how-to-prevent-windows-10-from-automatically-downloading-updates/

If you want security updates immediately but would prefer to delay feature upgrades, options are described at this web page.

http://www.howtogeek.com/223083/what-does-"defer-upgrades"-in-windows-10-mean/

If you would rather just avoid any possibility of interruptions due to Windows Updates or Upgrades, a technical method to disable them is provided at this web page.

https://mspoweruser.com/turn-off-windows-update-windows-10/

Warning: Disabling Microsoft updates could make your system vulnerable to future security risks.