[New setting] Check for updates automatically (on/off)

[htcfreek]

As discussed in the issue #2688 we could add a new setting for disable the automatic update check and notifications. (In addition to the setting we have which disable the automatic download and installation.)

Technical details

• Name: Check for updates automatically
• Type: on/off switch
• Section: General > Update (see [Settings V2 UX] Improve logical groupings of the general page #2688)
• Setting available: only admins should be able to change

Usecases

• For example if PT is installed in companys on clients or terminal servers, where the user had no rights to install software and the software gets updated by SCCM or other tools. (For this scenario normal users shouldn't be able to change the sitting.)
• An other scenario would be an user who wants to check only manually every x days.

[htcfreek]

@crutkas Thoughts?

[htcfreek]

@crutkas Can you please add the lable and a milestone.

[kraoli]

Yes, I have the same wish.

I try to keep my system as stable as possible and do feature updates only in larger intervals with a system image done before. Never change a running system - besides it's a security fix.

I thought a bit about security. Actually, I'm not sure what's best from a security point of view. Maybe it's better to just suppress regular update notifications, but show them in case of important security updates? But this might introduce too much complexity. Just speaking for myself. I'm fine to take this risk and check manually from time to time. I don't think that PT have such a big attack surface as a browser for instance.

[wvmstr]

I like the term "notification spam" mentioned earlier. It is applicable here as well. Currently updates are implemented as such.
They are a daily distraction. I have considered uninstalling PT to get rid of the notification spam.

PT is not something I use everyday, and I am not particularly interested in receiving daily, or even weekly updates and the associated notifications.

Consider all the notification spam I am already receiving from Microsoft:
your account settings are out of date...your account settings are out of date...your account settings are out of date...
there is a problem with your account...there is a problem with your account...there is a problem with your account...
windows will update outside of active hours...windows will update outside of active hours...windows will update outside of active hours...
same for Visual Studio: you need to login again...you need to login again...you need to login again...
and how about Office365?, same thing: each and every day changes are made to Office365, 99% of those notification emails are about changes not applicable to anything what I am doing.

I don't want automated updates for anything (except maybe some security related matters) including the notification spam that comes with it, luckily I noticed that the new Edge browser also wants me to accept automatic updates. So I declined to install it for these reasons alone (I am a web developer).

Long story short consider the possibility that not everyone wants automatic updates, update notifications etc. Give users like me a way out to a frictionless experience.

Please

[enricogior]

@kraoli @wvmstr
have you already tried to turn notification off for PowerToys?

Would that be enough or you want granularity?

[crutkas]

@wvmstr, we're working on getting this stuff better. Thanks for working with through this with us.

For hot fix releases, they typically are fixing a critical problem. For our toast does have a "don't show it again" option

[wvmstr]

@crutkas @enricogior
Thanks for the reminder on the notifications, turned off now.

I would say that a hotfix for a critical problem warrants a notification, nothing else does as typically I learn about new capabilities on the various Microsoft news sites. But that is just me.

Thanks for being so responsive!

[crutkas]

we do notifications in two scenarios,

1. we detect PT is running in a state where stuff will act weird. (elevated apps and PT isn't).
2. new versions (which include hot fixes) which right now our updates tend do always include a critical fix :)

[crutkas]

We're before v1.0 and still early in development. Having everyone on the latest aids in debugging and support. This was a big issue before we started the notifications and alerting people.

[MSH14]

@crutkas
Hi, I'm sitting as a sysadm, and would like to disable toast notifications on a wider scale.
To do this, I could of cause go around to each user individually and disable notifications manually, though this would be highly inefficient, and time consuming.

I've been searching for a solution for the past month, but no luck so far. I've made a RegShot, in hopes of finding a solution, but again, no luck.

My question is therefore: Is there anyway to disable the toast notifications through a reg. key or the like, so it can be rolled out through for example a GPO?

Thanks.

[crutkas]

@MSH14, as of right now, no. If it was, it would be done via the JSON file, not reg as well.

[MSH14]

@crutkas, thanks for the reply. In that case, I suppose I'll just have to wait and see if it will be implemented :)

[htcfreek]

@MSH14, as of right now, no. If it was, it would be done via the JSON file, not reg as well.

Maybe we can have a policy json file in the program diretory which defines settings that couldn't be changed by the user.

[fredsleeve]

I would also appreciate a feature to disable update notifications/checks.

Some of our users testing PowerToys especially FancyZones as alternative for other solutions like "Dell Display Manager" and can't update PT right now due to limited rights.

If somebody has a workaround to prevent this, please let me know. Thanks.

[npg500]

Hi, I'm using PowerToys in a large coprorate network, where internet updates are not possible due to security reasons. Users just get confused by update notifications since they're not allowed to download or install anything. Software packages are exclusively rolled out via SCCM.
So I second the implementation of a feature to disable update checks at all.

Thank you all for your continuous efforts to make the product better.

[nkasco]

Anything new on this? Looking to bring this into a corporate environment but can't do so without the ability to disable auto update notifications during install.

[crutkas]

@nkasco not something we're looking to add in currently. We're open source so if you feel this is a must have feature, please submit a PR.

For us, the ability to keep everyone up-to-date is critical for releases and support.

[Jay-o-Way]

I think it would be good to suppress notifications on a version basis, so until the next update is available

[NomarCub]

Or if MSIX/ Microsoft Store becomes a thing.

PowerToys is on the Microsoft Store now. This is also relevant to other installation methods, e.g. package managers like Chocolatey or winget.
I don't want choco upgrade to potentially conflict with this.

Nor do I want to be notified of updates that I get from other places. Nor do I want to disable all notifications from PowerToys just because I don't want the update ones.

[crutkas]

I was chatting with @denelon and with WinGet at a minimum, regardless of how your got the app, if it is in winget, it should show up with the winget update flow.

For powertoys, regardless of how it got installed, it should flow back to our github release. Store, WinGet both point back here so it should always be the same installer.

i do want to state I do understand the ask but delicate balance for making users aware there is an update but reduce noise. We have some ideas too

[denelon]

We've got a couple of Issues being discussed with regard to winget upgrade and the ability to "exclude" packages. For WinGet, it doesn't matter how a package was installed. If we're able to match the metadata from the registry (displayed in Windows Apps & Features) with a package configured in one of the sources, we will show updates available via winget list or winget upgrade, but nothing automatically performs updates without user action (like winget upgrade --all) or another program calling for an upgrade.

The Microsoft Store does not automatically update Win32 apps. There is work in progress to include version information so WinGet could show available updates from the store, but I'm not aware of any plans to support automatic updates from the Microsoft Store for Win32 apps.

[kheldorn]

Can only support the addition of a feature to disable the update check for enterprise environments.

I was actually quite surprised and disappointed that this was not included in the admx policy pack.

[htcfreek]

@jaimecbernardo
Any plans when the policies are coming? I think we should have two:

• "Disable auto update and show information only.#"
• "Skip information for 3 (or 1) main release version."

[ThiloLangbeinHUK]

Preventing those update checks, prompts etc. is really necessary.

[htcfreek]

@jaimecbernardo, @crutkas
I am working on this. I plan to implement the following GPOs:

• Disable automatic download.
• Suspend toast notification from periodic check for two minor releases. (Current: 0.60.0; Next toast: 0.63.*) => See also.
• Disable automatic background update check. (This GPO will be implemented for later usage, but not active.)

This allows admins to suspend update notifications (only toasts) for 2 releases and to disable automatic downloads, but the update feature in settings is not affected and still works. And if a new version is available/detected automatically, it is still shown in settings and launcher flyout.

What do you think? If you like to discuss this offline please send me an e-mail.

[crutkas]

Woot!

[Aaron-Junker]

@htcfreek You only implemented group policies to disable this right? This can't be done by the user manually (which is the original request of many)?

[htcfreek]

@htcfreek You only implemented group policies to disable this right? This can't be done by the user manually (which is the original request of many)?

@Aaron-Junker
Yes. But the user can set the policy by setting the registry value manual in HKCU or HKLM.

And btw. we can close this issue.

[Aaron-Junker]

This was implemented in release 0.68. Thank you for the enhancement request!

[NomarCub]

How can I use this? Do I have to use GPO policies, whatever those are for this feature? How can I do that? I see no instructions here or in the release notes. Couldn't there be just a toggle for it in the settings?

(Your comment's link points to the wrong release now btw, to 0.69, instead of 0.68.)