Way back in 2017, with the release of windows 10, version 1703, Microsoft wanted users to be able to be more involved in the time Windows should restart for updates. This brought with it improved restart options, encouraging use of active hours which had been introduced the year before, so that Windows would not restart at inopportune times.
I was in college at this point and was running Windows 10 Pro, version 1703. In these days, I was hesitant to make any sort of customization to Windows Update outside of what you could do on Home edition. At one point, I noticed that a window appeared while the machine was plugged in that said, "We've got an update for you."
My keyboard focus was inside a button that said "Another time." In these days, the buttons were inside a toolbar. If you haven't seen this window, it typically is seen after a period of time when Windows is about ready to reboot for updates.
After seeing this window appear the first time, I began to wonder about the logic behind it, as I had never seen it when on battery, only when the machine was plugged in. This blog post will outline what I have investigated over the past 8.5 years, since this window was introduced in 2017, and everything I had learned after that, including steps taken, changes to the window, how restarts actually work, and other details of how to work around this and also the odd workflow I'm using so that I can reboot from within this window.
We've Got An Update For youThere are 3 buttons in the toolbar:
Windows is a service and updates are a normal part of keeping it running smoothly. Your update is scheduled for 5:03 PM. Or, select Restart Now if you're ready to do it now.
In the next version of Windows 10, Microsoft did something really strange, which I actively posted feedback on to get reversed. This time, the "We've got an update for you" window was replaced by a permanent notification that would appear on the screen. While potentially better visually, my fear was that for something as important as a reboot for updates, a screen reader user could miss that. If you're away from the machine, coming back and being able to continue navigating in your applications when there was an impending countdown for a reboot seemed like a bad idea. One time I closed the notification, only to see that it had gone to the action center, where I could see it there. While it was now a notification instead of a full screen window, everything else about how the buttons were laid out was the same, for example, the same 3 buttons were present. Although, I am unsure of what would have happened if you had simply pressed space on the notification itself instead of one of the buttons.
Another change made in Windows 10, version 1709 was that when clicking the "Another time" button, you were taken to the Settings app to explicitly select the time you want to restart. In Windows 10, version 1703, pressing the "Another Time" button simply pushes the time back.
In 2018, Microsoft released the Windows 10, April 2018 update, and I didn't think much about this. The update alert had been a toast, I had posted feedback on it, and did not have high hopes for them addressing it (how many people regularly see that unless you actively are trying to prevent restarts?)
Very surprisingly, I found that in Windows 10, version 1803, Microsoft had actually addressed my feedback, and the "We've got an update for you" interaction was again the full screen window instead of a notification. The only difference this time was that the 3 buttons were no longer inside a toolbar, but that doesn't matter, the core interaction is the same, and it may have carried some wording changes, however I am uncertain as to whether the wording change came with 1803 or 1809, but it is definitely there in 1809.
In Windows 10, version 1809, Microsoft introduced the smart scheduler, where many more factors were involved in determining when the system would restart now, which is where the logic gets more interesting. Up until this point, you could be outside of active hours, and you had a high probability of encountering this message because it only factored whether the screen was off which could have resulted in some machines rebooting at an inconvenient time. With the smart scheduler, Windows uses complex logic to determine when the restart should happen, so I thought that the times of being able to see the "We've got an update for you" window were over, and I'd be left with unknowns. However, I found that I was still able to see this window appear, although in those days I was uncertain about the logic, because Windows would wake from sleep to initiate the reboots anyway. That was where it was left for a long time, and I thought that my chances of encountering it and thus being able to explore it, were slim.
Additionally, by this time, now that the interaction was back to the full screen window, pressing the "Another Time" button bumped the restart back, without going into Settings, just as it did in Windows 10, version 1703. So it was only 1709 that dropped you into the Settings app when pressing "Another Time."
With the wording changes noted above, in Windows 10 version 1809, the message now says:
We've Got An Update For You Windows is a service and updates are a normal part of keeping it running smoothly. We'll restart and install this update at 6:09 PM. Or, you can restart now if you're ready.
I was fairly late moving up to Windows 10 version 1903, 1909 was out, and it shared the same features as 1903. Therefore, both versions would have identical behavior when it came to exploring the "We've got an update for you" window. During its development, the "We've got an update for you" window had some changes, but then appeared to have been reverted back, albeit with some wording changes. Although, someone didn't proofread it, because in the final versions of both Windows 10, version 1903 and 1909, the message now reads:
We've Got An Update For You
Windows is continuously improving, and updates are a normal part of keeping it running it smoothly. We'll restart and install this update and 7:03 PM. Or, you can restart now if you're ready.
Although there will be more to say about Windows 10 and this window later, this section describes the last piece to the puzzle that I had investigated in 2020 and 2021. At this point, Windows 10, versions 2004, 20H2, and 21H1 had been released. I noticed by this point that I could prevent the machine from waking from sleep to install updates by disabling the wake timers in advanced power options in Control Panel. Apart from that, I also finally noticed that the typo that had appeared in the window had now been fixed. So it now read:
We've Got An Update For YouSo now, the message no longer had a typo, and that was where it was left for awhile on Windows 10. However, one quick thing to note, which is relevant for the next section, is that when the machine would wake from sleep, you could still hear a screen reader read the window appearing, even though visually, the screen remains off, so a sighted person would have no idea that the window had appeared until they move the mouse.
Windows is continuously improving, and updates are a normal part of keeping it running smoothly. We'll restart and install this update at 8:04 PM. Or, you can restart now if you're ready.
This is where things get really interesting. There was a really annoying bug in initial versions of Windows 11, version 21H2, where when a restart was pending for an update, a screen reader may randomly say "w." You would have to use alt+tab to get back to the application you were using. AT this point, when my Windows 11 machine would wake from sleep to install updates, it simply rebooted with no warning. Had they removed the "We've got an update for you" window?
It turns out that they had simply changed when to display the window. On Windows 10, there's a problem. A sighted person can't see the window when it appeared when the machine wakes from sleep, until they press a key or move the mouse. This means that screen reader users were getting more information than sighted users did. On Windows 11, Microsoft changed the logic so that when the machine is in sleep, it will wake up and simply reboot with no warning. I did not like this.
It was left here for a really long time. I thought initially that Windows 11 didn't have the window at all, which, in my opinion, was a major step backwards. How would people know to save their work if the window didn't ever appear? I assumed that it would also restart without warning if the machine was actively being used. However, with Windows 11, version 22H2 and up, I was initially told by someone that the window does exist. I later found out that Microsoft made the window only ever show if the machine was awake. The screen could be off, but the machine had to be awake.
Then, as late as February 2026, I found a copy of Windows 11, version 21H2 again, set it up in a virtual machine, and updated it, and simply left the virtual machine running, and waited. Eventually, I saw the "We've got an update for you" window also appear on version 21H2.
While reading through Microsoft's documentation about Windows Update in a business context, there was a note indicating that the behavior will be different if you turn on the option to show more restart notifications. To turn on this option you need to go to Windows Update Advanced Options. This is at Settings>Windows Update>Advanced Options on Windows 11. On Windows 10, it's at Settings>Update & Security>Windows Update>Advanced Options.
There is a button labelled "Notify me when a restart is required to finish updating" on Windows 11, or "Show a notification when your PC requires a restart to finish updating" on Windows 10, or "Show a notification when your device requires a restart to finish updating." on Windows Server 2022.
If you turn this toggle on, the behavior changes quite drasticly. When this is turned on, Windows will actually not pick a random restart time like normal for awhile, unless you explicitly click the OK button in the notification that appears. This is done to give you plenty of time to schedule your own restart time/to finish what you're working on. Once the OK button is clicked, you will get a similar experience to what you would get when this toggle is turned off. Therefore, most people will want to turn this on.
I had the wrong message indicated in the Windows 10 version 1703 section. Thanks to a copy of Windows 10 version 1703, I was able to download updates from 2018 to test the experience on that version and, therefore, to correct the wording of the "we've got an update for you" window on that version.
Similarly, I used version 1709 to determine that pressing "Another time" drops you into the Schedule restart window, and I added this information to that section.
This has been a major interest of mine, researching and investigating the logic behind the "We've got an update for you" window, and I'm sure there are probably more things to discover with it. I will update this post as I either find out additional behaviors or if I notice I forgot something.