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Windows 10 didn't quite fix forced updates, but Microsoft's trying again

It's the worst thing about Windows 10.

Sean Hollister Senior Editor / Reviews
When his parents denied him a Super NES, he got mad. When they traded a prize Sega Genesis for a 2400 baud modem, he got even. Years of Internet shareware, eBay'd possessions and video game testing jobs after that, he joined Engadget. He helped found The Verge, and later served as Gizmodo's reviews editor. When he's not madly testing laptops, apps, virtual reality experiences, and whatever new gadget will supposedly change the world, he likes to kick back with some games, a good Nerf blaster, and a bottle of Tejava.
Sean Hollister
2 min read
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Sean Hollister/CNET

I called them "the most frustrating thing about Windows" -- the forced automatic updates that lock you out of your computer until they're done. 

In March 2017, Microsoft made some pretty big strides toward solving the issue by letting you snooze an update indefinitely, but it still wasn't quite enough. In the 16 months since, I've still had a couple of instances where my computer tricked me into an update or wrested away control at a particularly inconvenient moment.

But according to a new official blog post on Wednesday, Windows 10 will soon include a new machine learning technique to figure out the best time to restart. 

"We trained a predictive model that can accurately predict when the right time to restart the device is. Meaning, that we will not only check if you are currently using your device before we restart, but we will also try to predict if you had just left the device to grab a cup of coffee and return shortly after," Windows Insider Program head Dona Sarkar said in the blog post.

I haven't tried the new model yet, so I'm not sure how well it works, particularly for users like me who tend to only leave their laptops awake when they're in use. But Microsoft says it's seen "promising results" in internal testing. 

Here's hoping -- because this is not acceptable:

If you want to give it a try early, here's how to download the latest Windows 10 build.

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