How to Cancel Windows 11 update?

Anonymous
2021-12-16T19:58:35+00:00

I'm one of the people who had Windows 11 download itself without me telling it to do so. Now, it is ready for install. I do not want to install Windows 11 at this point. I want to keep my Windows 10.

I've paused it for 7 days, but this is a temporary solution. Can I delete the Windows 11 download somehow? I'm running Windows 10 on a brand new Dell computer.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Install and upgrade

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-12-16T23:55:35+00:00

    Hi PortlandMT,
    I'm Rodrigo and I will help you.
    Go to folder C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download and delete everything inside it, this folder contains all update files.

    Nothing bad will happen if I delete everything I'm seeing in that file? Will the Windows 11 download start again when I restart my computer?

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  2. Rodrigo Queiroz 78,620 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2021-12-17T01:07:01+00:00

    Nothing bad will happenif you delete these files, the Windows 11 will start downloading as soon you restart the computer, but can be downloaded again in the future.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-01-02T16:55:44+00:00

    Thanks to you and Sumit for the reply.

    I am very angry with microshift, I do not have the time to go behind its ****, now win10 is working and I do not want to change to 11 because there is the high risk somw sw will not afterwards. To force the installation of 21h1, I am not sure it will work since now it has 11 ready and no 21... and again I do not want to risk to waste time after something is wrong. Maybe I will wait like you say the 24 Jan to delay the ****, but only another 4 weeks; or maybe I let it go and then I recover completely to original configuration, but this is another 2 days of work. Someone should sue microshift for not asking permission to do this kind of **** to customers.

    A few months ago I was forced to remove the innocuous pgp10 which I used only as single file encryption, ridiculously it said it is incompatible with 20H1. Very angry

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  4. Sumit 44,226 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2021-12-21T02:10:46+00:00

    As long as you have created a restore point and you do not delete anything in the registry, it is perfectly safe to do so.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-12-21T14:18:44+00:00

    I just checked my Dell Laptop for what version of Windows I'm running. It is running:

    WINDOWS 10 HOME 20H2

    I see that doesn't match any of what you told me above in the registry. You have these two versions listed:

    Windows 10 version 21H2

    Windows 10 version 21H1

    So your instructions will not work for me.

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