How to set Active Hours on a Windows 11/10 PC – Guide

Since the release of Windows 10, Windows Update has received a lot of controversy over how updates are scheduled. Earlier versions of Windows gave users more control over updates. In Windows 10, Microsoft makes updates a mandatory part of maintaining your system up Until the present date. There are good reasons for this. I’ve come across computers that are rarely updated, which can easily leave a system vulnerable to attack. Of course there has to be a balance. One of the main complaints about Windows Update when Windows 10 was first released was its disruptive nature. Nothing was more irritating than going back to finish some work on your PC only to find it restarted due to an update. Subsequent Windows 10 updates have given back some control over updates and offer flexibility in scheduling their installation. Active hours (added in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update) are a feature that Windows 10 reports when you use your PC. And during this time, Windows will not automatically restart your device to install updates. The time period you set up tells Windows that your computer cannot be restarted to install an update.

How to enable active hours in Windows 11/10

Starting with Windows 10 version 1903, there are two ways to enable active hours. You can let the system configure active hours automatically based on your activities, or you can set a specific time range manually.

Enabling automatic active hours

To enable automatic active time in Windows 10, follow these steps: Turn on the Automatically adjust active hours for this device based on activity toggle. Once you’ve completed these steps, Windows 10 will analyze how you use your device and configure active hours automatically. Also, this means that as your screen time schedule changes, active hours will adjust accordingly.

Configuring custom active hours

To manually configure active hours on your device to avoid sudden restarts, follow these steps: After completing the steps, if there is an update pending, the computer will only restart outside the specified active hours, preventing interruptions while you are working.

How to reschedule automatic restart in Windows 11/10

To schedule a restart to apply an update outside of active hours, follow these steps:

Final note

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