Microsoft has announced that starting with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, users will no longer be forced to install new Windows 10 feature updates as they become available. This comes after feedback from users who have had countless issues with updates breaking programs, losing files, and installing at inconvenient times. Microsoft has been working hard to improve Windows Update, and while the system is better than it was at launch in 2015, it's still not perfect. Now, users will have the option to not have to deal with feature updates when they are released.

What Microsoft is doing here is splitting Windows Update in two. The normal "check for updates" button will now only function for security and monthly patches. Feature updates now get their own area in Windows Update where the user can initiate the download and install process for the latest feature update available. If the user doesn't want to initiate that process, they don't have to. The user will be alerted that a new feature update is available every now and then, but at no point will the user be forced to install that update, as long as the version of Windows 10 they're currently running is still in support.

Related: The difference between 'feature updates' and 'quality updates'

That last part is key. Users can't remain on an old version of Windows 10 forever. Microsoft says that it will automatically install the latest feature update when the version of Windows 10 the user is currently running reaches end of support. For consumers, a feature update is in support for around 18 months. So, for example, assuming Microsoft releases two feature updates a year, users running Windows 10 version 1809 can opt to not install version 1903, version 1909, and version 2003 before version 1809 runs out of support and Microsoft automatically installs the latest version available, which would likely be version 2009 at the time.