Unlike the previous versions of Windows, Microsoft made it a lot harder to manage the updates in Windows 10. In fact, there are no built-in options to hide the unwanted updates. That being said, we’ve already covered how you can manage and disable automatic updates in Windows 10. One way is to use the official troubleshooting app to temporarily hide the updates you don’t want to install.
Alternatively, you can also hide updates using PowerShell in Windows 10. Here is how you can do so.
Accessing PowerShell in Windows 10
Older versions of Windows 10 didn’t include PowerShell. However, if your system is up to date, PowerShell is already installed. If you need to install it, visit Windows Update (Settings -> Update & Security -> Windows Update) to install the latest version of Windows 10.
Press Win + X or right-click the Start menu. Select Windows PowerShell (Admin). This options allows you to execute commands with admin rights. This only works if your Windows 10 account actually has admin privileges.
Unrestrict Access
By default, your user account will have restricted access, and you won’t be able to run any external scripts in PowerShell. To run external scripts, you need to set the execution policy to Unrestricted. To do that, enter the below command and press the Enter button.
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
As soon as you execute the command, you will be asked for the confirmation. Simply press the A key followed by Enter on your keyboard. From this point onward, your user account will have unrestricted access.
If you want, you can check the current execution policy of your user account using the below command. As you can see, I have unrestricted access.
Get-ExecutionPolicy
After changing the execution policy, you are free to use the PowerShell however you want.
Install Windows Update Tool
By default, Windows 10 PowerShell doesn’t include the commands to manage Windows Updates. Instead, you have to install the PSWindowsUpdate module. You can do this directly within PowerShell as long as you have unrestricted admin access.
Open PowerShell and enter:
Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate
Type “Y” to confirm that you want to also install NuGet as well, which is required to use PSWindowsUpdate. Please note that you must be connected to the Internet to do this.
If you get a warning about an untrusted repository, type “Y” to confirm you want to continue.
The installation process should only take a few minutes in most cases. You’ll return to the normal PowerShell prompt once everything’s complete.
Hiding Updates Based on Title
Before you can hide updates using PowerShell, you need to see a list of what’s currently pending. You’ll need the name of the update in order to hide it.
To start, use the below command to get a list of all the available Windows updates.
Get-WUList
Once you have the list of all the available updates, find the update you want to hide and note the title of the update. You’ll need the title if the update doesn’t have a KB number. You can also use the KB number. (See the next section.) Enter the following command and press the Enter button to hide the update. Don’t forget to replace UpdateName* with the actual title.
Hide-WindowsUpdate -Title "UpdateName*"
We can use the wildcard (*) before and after the title as long as part of the title is correct and unique. If you don’t want to bother with the wildcards, just enter the full update title.
In PowerShell, you can highlight and copy a section of text to avoid having to type everything. This also prevents any errors from mistyping something.
PowerShell asks you to confirm your action. Simply press the A key followed by Enter on your keyboard.
This action will hide the target Windows Update. You can confirm that by looking at the letter H under “Status.” In case you are wondering, the letter H stands for Hidden.
Hiding Updates Based on KB Number
Alternatively, you can also hide a Windows update using its KB Article ID. To hide a Windows update using its KB Article ID, simply use the command below. Don’t forget to replace “KBNumber” in the below command with the ID of the update you want to hide.
Hide-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID KBNumber
Again, PowerShell will ask you for the confirmation. Enter the letter A and press the Enter button.
Unhide Updates
In the future, if you ever want to unhide the update, you’ll need to display the update list using a different command. The original Get-WUList doesn’t show hidden updates.
Instead, use the following command:
Show-WindowsUpdateType L to say No to all. Otherwise, you’ll view details about each individual update, then see a list of all updates, including hidden ones.
Now that you have the KB number or title of the hidden update(s), use one of the following commands to unhide them, replacing “KBNumber” with the actual KB number or “UpdateTitle” with the title. Only use one command or the other, not both at the same time.
Show-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID KBNumber
Show-WindowsUpdate -Title UpdateTitle
The above action will again ask you for the confirmation; simply confirm the action, and you will have your update back.
If you’ve hidden numerous updates and want to show them again, use the following command:
Show-WindowsUpdateType A to show all updates, including any you’ve hidden. This is a quick way to restore all hidden updates at once versus entering individual titles or KB numbers.
To wrap it up, change your execution policy back to Restricted using the below command. Having your user account run the scripts with unrestricted access could leave your system vulnerable.
Set-ExecutionPolicy RestrictedTo further manage your Windows 10 updates using PowerShell, enter the following:
get-command-module PSWindowsUpdate
This gives you a list of all available update management commands within this module.
If you just want to limit your download times to avoid pesky restarts while you’re in the middle of something or to save bandwidth on a limited connection, set an update window within Windows Update. Also, learn how to troubleshoot Windows 10 Update issues if something’s not going quite right.
