Background:
This problem happened 5 months before Windows 10 version 1909 was released. So upgrading to Windows 10 1909 wasn’t an option. It also would not have solved this issue.
The reason I identified this problem is due to the fact I had two identical instances of Windows 10, running two different builds, of Windows 10 version 1903. I noticed one install had the options, and the other did not.
I recently ran into an issue, with my legacy system, at the time I had the problem it was running a build released before May 29, 2019.
When attempting to update the legacy system I noticed the option to defer feature updates and quality updates was missing. I had manually performed the update to Windows 10 version 1903
using the upgrade assistance, in an attempt to solve a problem, I had with a .NET Framework application.
At the time I was running two Windows 10 installation on two different systems. One was a clean Windows 10 version 1903
installation while the other was Windows 10 version 1809
which I manually upgraded to Windows 10 version 1903
in order to solve the unrelated problem.
I knew something was wrong when the legacy system didn't display the deferment options yet the new system did.
Why are options to defer feature updates and quality updates missing from the Advanced Windows Update options? The system had previously been running 1809 with those options set to 60 and 30 days respectfully.
Best Answer
It appears that this issue stems from a possible known issue caused by
DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays
andDeferQualityUpdatesPeriodInDays
keys withinComputer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings
being set to something other than0
.Since Microsoft has not confirmed this is an issue with Windows 10 version 1903, I can only go by the confirmed cases I have read about, it does not appear to be a widespread issue though.
Source: Windows 10, version 1903 and Windows Server, version 1903
I was able to confirm this was the case by changing the value of
DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays
to0
and performed a reboot and the option to defer feature updates returned. As you can see the option to defer quality updates is still missing.Once I set both
DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays
andDeferQualityUpdatesPeriodInDays
to0
and performed a restart both options finally returned.Sources:
Can't Defer Feature Updates in v1903 Windows 10 Pro?
Windows 10 1903: the case of the missing update deferral options
Known and Resolved issues for Windows 10 May 2019 Update version 1903