How to Enable or Disable Safeguard Holds in Windows 11

This guide walks you through enabling or disabling safeguard holds for feature updates in Windows 11.

Feature updates are essentially new versions of Windows, released through Windows Update about twice a year. Usually they come out around spring and fall.

Safeguard holds are a safety feature that prevents a device with a known problem from receiving a new operating system version. Microsoft removes the hold once a fix is found and tested. These holds help ensure customers have a good experience when moving to a new version of Windows.

When your device uses Windows Update (but not Windows Update for Business), you’ll notice a message on the Windows Update page. It will say a feature update is coming soon, but it’s not quite ready for your device yet. Instead of a download button, you’ll see a ‘Learn more’ option. If you see this message, one or more holds are affecting your device.

Hold times can vary, depending on how long it takes to investigate and fix an issue. Microsoft works hard to find, develop, and test a fix before offering it to affected devices. They closely watch quality and compatibility data to confirm a fix is complete before removing the hold. Once Microsoft removes the hold, Windows Update will offer new operating system versions to your device again.

Why might you consider disabling safeguard holds? You can do this by enabling the ‘Disable safeguards for Feature Updates’ Group Policy. This policy allows feature updates to install without any safeguard holds blocking them.

What happens when you opt out of a safeguard hold? Opting out can put your device at risk from known performance issues. Microsoft advises doing this only in an IT environment for testing. You can also test upcoming Windows feature updates without safeguards by using the Release Preview channel of the Windows Insider Program for Business. Remember, disabling safeguards doesn’t guarantee a successful update; it might still fail and lead to a poor experience, as you’re bypassing protection against known problems.

⚠️ Admin Required: You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable safeguards for feature updates. After your device installs a new Windows version, the “Disable safeguards for Feature Updates” Group Policy will automatically revert to “not configured” (which means safeguards are enabled). This happens even if you previously enabled it. Microsoft does this to make sure you consciously choose to disable protection from known issues for each new feature update.

Option One

Enable or Disable Safeguards for Feature Updates in Local Group Policy Editor

You can turn safeguard holds on or off in Windows 11 using the Local Group Policy Editor.

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc).
2. Navigate to the policy location below in the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor.
   

   Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>🔃 Windows Update>Manage updates offered from Windows Updates

3. In the right pane of “Manage updates offered from Windows Updates” in the Local Group Policy Editor, double click on the “Disable safeguards for Feature Updates” policy to edit it.

To Enable Safeguards for Feature Updates

This is the default setting.

1. Select (dot) “Not Configured”, click on “OK”.

To Disable Safeguards for Feature Updates

1. Select (dot) “Enabled”, click on “OK”
2. You can now close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v DisableWUfBSafeguards /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v DisableWUfBSafeguards /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f