Alternatively, you can also hide updates using PowerShell in Windows. Unless otherwise noted, the steps below work for both Windows 10 and 11. If you need troubleshooting help for Windows update problems, turn to SetupDiag. Note: none of the commands covered below are case sensitive.

Accessing PowerShell in Windows

While Windows 10 listed PowerShell in the power users start menu, it’s noticeably absent in the Windows 11 power users start menu. However, it’s still easy to get to by doing the following: Odds are, you might still be using Windows 10, especially since less than 3% of devices are running Windows 11. If so, use the steps below to access PowerShell instead. 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. If you need help along the way, our troubleshooting guide for the latest Windows 10 problems will help you. Press Win + X or right-click the Start menu. Select Windows PowerShell (Admin). This option allows you to execute commands with admin rights. Of course, this only works if your Windows 10 account actually has admin privileges. Tip: customize your Windows Terminal to make the most of it.

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 using the following steps. After changing the execution policy, you are free to use PowerShell however you want.

Install Windows Update Tool

By default, Windows 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. 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 and the name of the update to hide it. 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 mistyping errors.

Hiding Updates Based on KB Number

Alternatively, you can hide a Windows update using its KB Article ID with the command below. Don’t forget to replace “KBNumber” with the ID of the update you want to hide. Again, PowerShell will ask you for confirmation. Enter the letter A and press the Enter button.

Unhide Updates

In the future, if you 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. If you’ve hidden numerous updates and want to show them again, use the following command: Type 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. To further manage your Windows updates using PowerShell, enter the following: This gives you a list of all available update management commands within this module.

What You Can and Can’t Do via PowerShell

Before you get too excited about being able to hide updates using PowerShell, there are a few things to keep in mind. This shouldn’t be seen as a way to stop all Windows updates. As you can see in the steps above, you’re hiding individual updates one at a time, not all updates at once. Plus, you’d need to visit PowerShell likely weekly to check for any new updates that may have been released. This will get tedious quickly, and you’re likely to miss some. Use PowerShell only as a method to hide certain updates that you know you don’t want at all, or use it as an indefinite pause on specific updates, such as those where users are reporting issues after updating. If you need to pause all updates and don’t want to enter each one manually in PowerShell, you have two other options. One of them is “Settings -> Windows Update -> Pause Updates.” To pause updates longer than the five weeks listed within Windows Update, you can also set your Internet connection to metered. By default, Windows won’t download updates automatically on metered connections. You’ll receive notifications about new updates, but you have to manually choose to download them. This also gives you a longer window to review updates and see whether there are any you want to hide via PowerShell. Image credit: Unsplash