Microsoft has now confirmed major changes to the way in which Windows works on your PC — or rather doesn’t work. This is all about Microsoft forcing updates , restarts and shutdowns. And it affects more than a billion of its users.

Two key complaints "persistently pop out,” says Microsoft’s Aria Hanson in a new blogpost . “Disruption caused by untimely updates and not enough control over when updates happen.” Not any more — which is a huge, sudden change.

Hanson is “excited to share" the improvements to Windows Update “now starting to roll out” as a "direct result of your feedback.” Windows users now have “more control" over their PCs, while keeping devices "secure by design and by default."

“Shutdown, Restart on your terms,” Microsoft says. “Restarting or shutting down your PC should always be simple, predictable, and on your terms – even with updates waiting to be installed.” And that sums up the change.

The point-by-point updates coming to your PC are as follows:

  1. "Skip updates immediately during the out of box experience (OOBE)
  2. Extend update pauses as many times as you need
  3. Always-available options to shut down and restart without updating
  4. More insights on available updates so you can make more informed installation decisions."

This is good news for Windows 11 users, which now number more than one billion of Microsoft’s install base, a number set to grow with the next Windows 10 upgrade deadline less than six months away, when the ESU comes to an end .

Per Windows Latest , this change “fixes some of the most frustrating parts of updates, which are the updates themselves. The company has finally fixed the interruptions from Windows updates and the lack of control over scheduling them.”

Put simply, you can "skip Windows updates during setup" and even “pause updates as long as you want,” which means you can also now restart at will without any unintended consequences. “The changes are all rolling out now" for Windows Insiders and “Experimental (Canary and Dev channels),” and then for everyone.

“When Microsoft said that they would give us more control over Windows updates,” Windows Latest says, “I didn’t expect those changes to roll out so soon. In fact, I wasn’t expecting such a drastic change of heart from the company that was infamous for frustrating its users with multiple updates a month.”

And yet here we are — kudos to Microsoft.