Stop Feature update 1903 - Windows 10 Enterprise

Ahmed Hassanein 11

Dear Team

I am working on updating the master image For Windows 1809. There are many application dependencies in our environment that need to be considered before upgrading to the next Feature update (SSO agent, AV). Windows Update is forcing us to go for 1903. I understand that for consumer users they should upgrade, however, it stated in Microsoft Life Cycle fact sheet that 1809 is still supported for Enterprise until May 11, 2021. How do we suppose to keep 1809 updated without moving to 1903?

Kind regards

Ben Sinclair 6 Reputation points

2020-07-27T11:23:58.28+00:00

Hi @AhmedHassanein-5000 ,

I've found the same thing in the last couple of weeks. We have 1809 Enterprise which we are preparing to upgrade (in a controlled manner) to 1909 so we can stay on a release with 30 months support. I agree that 1809 is still in Enterprise support until next year so its a strange behaviour that we would have a forced upgrade to 1903. Interestingly we have all the correct group policies that's meant to stop this happening.

I understand Microsoft targeting Home and Pro versions of 1809 however Enterprise should be excluded until at least May 2021 - after this date I guess they would be fair to be targeted as they would be out of support too.

Have you found a workaround to this or are you continuing to be hit with unexpected 1903 deployments?

Thanks
LHerzog 6 Reputation points

2020-07-27T14:54:35.94+00:00

We have the same issue with 1809 Enterprise LTSC Clients starting now forced upgrade to 1903 within 30 days.
What a mess! Its upgrading to a build (1903) with even shorter support end (Dec 2020) than the currently installed 1809 with it's 30 month in Enterprise Licensing which is until May 2021.
Ben Sinclair 6 Reputation points

2020-07-27T15:37:08.837+00:00

Hi LHerzog-3736,

I contacted our MS account manager, who assures me no one else is experiencing this, currently there's very little on the other forums as a lot of content is geared towards Home and Pro.

We've had a further 40 machines get hit with it today, it appears to be specific to 1809, we have a hundred or so 1709 that we were actively moving to 1909 as we know that needed to be done in the next couple of weeks, but strangely this latest forced update doesn't appear to effect them.

At the minute we are contemplating blocking the Windows Update sites, however it acts as a secondary location for our AV so its not a decision we want to take lightly.

I would be keen to hear how you are hoping to tackle this or are you simply going to allow the uncontrolled upgrade and then apply your own 1909 upgrade over the top before December?

Thanks
LHerzog 6 Reputation points

2020-07-27T16:02:11.18+00:00

We've just set some new GPO settings and pushed them out to our clients some minutes ago. As this is critical we could not spend time for testing unfortunately but it seemed to stop the upgrade at clients that received but not yet installed the update today.

First we updated ADMX files in our AD because ours did not include the follwing setting about the target version.

These are the settings we changed or added:
Added:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Windows Update for Business
Target Version for Feature Updates "1809"

Changed:
Select when Preview Builds and Feature Updates are received "2020-07-27" "365"
We changed the date here. There was already a configured date set up in this policy: "2019-05-20" "365".
I think this are the 12 month + 30 days and then the computers that were already alive at that date now in July started do receive and install 1903.

3 answers

Quinlan 6 Reputation points

2020-06-01T08:45:50.603+00:00

Hi @Ahmed Hassanein ,

The recommended way is to use "Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC" which is in mainstream support until 1/9/2024.
The Long Term Servicing Channel does not receive feature upgrades and will force you to upgrade to 1903.
servicing-channels-19

As you are already trying to install Windows 10 Enterprise, you likely will have the required licensing for LTSC.

If you cannot use the LTSC version of Windows 10, you are able to defer the Windows 10 upgrade for 365 days however, the date starts counting from the first date of the next feature upgrade release.
In this case 1903 came out in May 2019. This would indicate that 1903 will be available for install May 2020 - Which has passed.

Your best bet will be to install LTSC or look at implementing 1903/1909 instead of 1809.

Warm Regards,
Quinlan
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1 person found this answer helpful.
LHerzog 6 Reputation points

2020-07-27T14:56:31.19+00:00

This post is not helpful to anything discussed here.
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Andy Griffiths 1 Reputation point

2020-08-03T09:49:38.633+00:00

Has anyone had any luck with this at all? We're still having issues with 1809 upgrading to 1903...
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LHerzog 6 Reputation points

2020-08-20T11:53:43.507+00:00

This solved the issue for us:

update ADMX files to latest version 2004 in your AD SysVol.

Add:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Windows Update for Business
Target Version for Feature Updates "1809"

Add:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Do not allow update deferral policies to cause scans against Windows Update
True
This prevents local WU client from using "Dual Scan" and bypass existing WSUS server.
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Kuznietsov Oleksii 1 Reputation point

2020-09-01T21:43:54.223+00:00

Thank you! Help us with these settings too!
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