If you go into Settings->Windows Updates->Advanced Options there's a option 'Restart this device as soon as possible when a restart is required to apply an update'. Set this to 'off'.

You'll have to do it eventually, but it'll be next time you restart. MS took away some control from users regarding when to apply updates, because many didn't apply them at all, leading to millions of unpatched machines worldwide with security vulnerabilities (or just so out of date that other things wouldn't work).

Look the bright side: it reduces the chances of a repeat of that time you had to clean a virus off your aunt's machine when it had Windows XP Service Pack 1 and IE6.

Is there a way to get rid of the the bloody ribbon and go back to toolbars and drop down options?

Nope.

You can go old, old, old school with this:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-file-manager/9p7vbbbc49rb?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

Have not tried it myself though

LibreOffice

I'm using that; slightly annoying that it saves automatically with and .odf extension, unrecognized by some sites so have to save 'em as .doc Same for GIMP image editor which is worse, as I have to export files as JPG to be recognized. ah well.

Here's another I haven't tried, but looks more useful than the first



https://www.explorerxp.com/

I always save as docx, for the corporate bods who get a bit sniffy about these things.

I've noticed.

Sparanoia sets in

I thought Win 10 allowed you to control when it installed stuff.

Isn't that only in the Pro version?

Oops, possibly. You Home users will get what you're given.

You need Enterprise in get back anything like the old level of control over a Windows OS.

Long Term Servicing Channel is even better, but has other downsides:

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/what-is-windows-10-ltsc-or-long-term-servicing-channel

You can certainly "Change active hours" which are the times when it will not restart.

You can pause updates for seven days.

to stop Windows installing its own updates seemingly at random :

Get a copy of Windows 10 Pro for a few quid on ebay.

Now I just get messages that updates will occur

when the machine is shut down.

I have a Mac for work, my main laptop for home is Linux, and I have a cheapo spare Windows laptop for the few things I can't do easily in Linux (my wife's iTunes stuff mainly). The difference between how they handle updates is really stark.

Mac: Takes ages, but I get to choose when it happens and it never seems to break anything. To be fair, this is a company managed laptop, so the IT team have probably absorbed a lot of the pain which might come from updates.

Linux: When I start up it lets me know that updates are available. I can pick and choose which ones I want to install, if I want to, or ignore them entirely. Minor updates can run in the background and don't need a restart. Major updates tend to come fairly rarely, and can be left until I'm ready for them, or not done at all.

Windows: STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING, INSTALL NOW, REBOOT NOW, MORE INSTALLING NOW, REEBOOT AGAIN, HA HA SOME OF YOUR SETTINGS HAVE BEEN REVERTED, NEARLY THERE, PLEASE DONT IGNORE EDGE.

Recently our Microsoft email system is sending me daily reminders about emails it thinks I need to pay attention to. Used to be called "Cortana" now renamed Viva.

Today it says I replied to an email with "Do I really need to print this email?"

Needs a bit of work I think.

On my Windows Home edition, I went to Settings → Windows Update → Advanced Options and then switched OFF the button that says "Restart this device as soon as possible when a restart is required to install and update."

I also switched ON the "Show a notification when your PC requires a restart to finish updatiing".

That allows me to finish what I was working on, shut down as usual, and the PC updates whenever I next switch on.

When I had a Win machine (now linux) I did that too, the click off box for auto updates.