How To Block a Windows 11 Update on a Windows 10 PC

If you’re happy using Windows 10 and don’t want to be tricked into updating to Windows 11, then your best option is to block the Windows 11 update altogether. This article will show you how to block a Windows 11 update on a Windows 10 PC. Continue to use your computer without any interference from Microsoft with these steps.

Unfortunately, Windows 10 doesn’t provide a straightforward way of blocking the Windows 11 update. Therefore, you have to manually edit registry values using the Registry Editor or the Group Policy Editor – which can be intimidating for some users. But don’t worry because we’ll break down the process into easy-to-digest steps.

How to Block a Windows 11 Update on a Windows 10 PC Using the Group Policy Editor

Group Policy Editor is a built-in Windows Management Console that you can use to control user accounts and your computer’s working environment.

Before using the program to block the Windows 11 update, you need to know your current version of Windows 10. Follow the steps below if you’re unsure of your version.

1. Navigate to your computer’s desktop and search for “winver”.
   
2. Select Open or press the Enter key on your keyboard.
   
3. In the pop-up window, you should see your current version of Windows 10.
   

Now that you know your Windows 10 version, you can proceed to block Windows 11 updates on your computer using the Group Policy Editor. Below are the steps to follow:

1. Type in Edit Group Policy or gpedit on your computer’s search bar.
   
2. From the options, select Open.
   
3. In the Local Computer Policy menu, open Computer Configuration.
   
4. Go to Administrative Templates and select Windows Components.
   
5. Scroll down to Windows Update and choose Windows Update for Business.
   
6. Click on Select the target Feature Update version.
   
7. Choose the Enabled radio option.
   
8. In the product field, type in Windows 10.
   
9. In the Target Version for Feature Update text field, key in your current version of Windows 10. Please note that if “winver” indicated something like “Version 21H2 (OS Build 19044.1889),” then you should key in the second string, which is 21H2.
   
10. Once you have finished, hit Apply then OK.
    

Restart your PC for the policy updates to take effect. Alternatively, you can use the Command Prompt (CMD) to update the policies immediately. Here’s how to do it:

1. Search for Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
   
2. Once the CMD is loaded, type in gpupdate /force and hit Enter.
   
3. Wait a few seconds for the updates to complete.
4. Close the window once you see a success message.

To verify that the process was successful, follow these steps:

1. Open Settings and select Updates & Security.
   
2. You should see a message saying that your organization manages some of your settings.
3. To view which Windows version you’ll receive security updates, click View configured update policies.

With the above settings activated, you won’t get any feature updates, including the dreaded Windows 11 update. However, you’ll continue getting security updates essential for any operating system.

Also, note that the Group Policy Editor is only available for the following versions of Windows 10:

• Windows 10 Pro
• Windows 10 Enterprise
• Windows 10 Education

For Windows 10 Home users, you can use the Registry Editor to edit registry values. Good thing, Registry Editor is available for all Windows 10 editions.

How to Block a Windows 11 Update on a Windows 10 PC Using the Registry Editor

To use the Registry Editor to block a Windows 11 update on a Windows 10 PC, follow the steps below:

1. Search for Registry Editor and select Open or Run as administrator.
   
2. On the pop-up window, click Yes.
   
3. Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and open SOFTWARE, then go to Policies.
   
4. Open the Microsoft folder and scroll down to Windows.
   
5. In the Windows folder, open WindowsUpdate. If you can’t see the folder, right-click Windows and create a new folder called WindowsUpdate.
   

Now that you have the “WindowsUpdate” folder, you have to create three keys:

• TargetReleaseVersion
• ProductVersion
• TargetReleaseVersionInfo

Ideally, the above keys specify the updates you want to receive for your computer. In our case, you only want to receive Windows 10 updates, not Windows 11. That said, here’s how to create each one of them:

1. Right-click the WindowUpdate folder.
   
2. From the options, select New then Key.
   
3. Select DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it TargetReleaseVersion.
   
4. Double-click TargetReleaseVersion, enter the value data as 1 and press the OK button.
   
5. Using Steps 2 through 4 as your reference, create another key called ProductVersion and give it a data value of Windows 10.
   
6. Right-click inside the WindowsUpdate folder again.
   
7. Go to New on the menu and select String Value.
   
8. Type in TargetReleaseVersionInfo and hit Enter.
   
9. Double-click TargetReleaseInfo and key in your Windows 10 current version as the value data. (Go to your desktop, search for winver, then click Open to see your Windows 10 current version.)
   
10. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Please note that you must type the keys exactly (including capitalization of the words) as they appear in the steps above for the process to work correctly. To verify that the keys are working properly, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Settings and click on Update & Security.
   
2. From the left sidebar, select Windows Insider Program.
   
3. You should see an alert below Windows Update stating that your organization manages some of your settings.

If you change your mind and would like to reverse the above settings so you can upgrade to Windows 11, follow these steps:

1. On your Windows 10, press the Windows + R keys.
   
2. In the Open text field, type in regedit and click OK.
   
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then SOFTWARE, and finally open the Policies folder.
   
4. Open the Microsoft folder, scroll down, and select Windows.
   
5. In the WindowsUpdate folder, select ProductVersion, TargetReleaseVersionInfo, and TargetReleaseVersion and hit the Delete key.
   
6. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

With the three keys now deleted, you can successfully upgrade to Windows 11.

Long Live Windows 10

As you can see, blocking a Windows 11 update on a Windows 10 isn’t impossible. You just need to specify the specific updates you would like your computer to receive using the Group Policy Editor or Registry Editor. The process blocks feature updates, but you will still receive security updates, so your computer remains protected even if you’re not receiving feature updates.

Regardless, we hope you can now block Windows 11 updates on your Windows 10 PC.

Have you ever blocked a Windows 11 update on a Windows 10 PC? Which of the above registry file editors did you use? Please share your experience with us in the comments section below.