How to automatically adjust Active Hours in Windows 11

Windows 11 and Windows 10 has introduced a lot of features around Windows Updates. One such feature is to adjust Active Hours based on your computer activity automatically. This can be useful as it tells the OS when to install Windows Updates.

Flexible Active Hours

Many of us use the Active Hours feature to make sure Windows Update doesn’t force us to restart the computer. If you keep your computer turned on, it will not apply the update during the specified active hours.

That said, active hours for many changes are not that strict. In my case, I have set active hours between 11 am and 5 pm, but usually, I complete work after 7 pm. Windows Update could prompt me for the update even though I am working. This is where flexible Active Hours comes into the picture.

Automatically adjust Active Hours in Windows 11

Windows performs Updates in the background and may reboot your system. To adjust this, you can choose to set Active hours so the system is not disturbed by the Windows Update process. If you are not sure of the time and don’t want to bother much about it, please choose the option to automatically adjust Active Hours in Windows 11.

The procedure to automatically adjust Active Hours in Windows 11 is as follows:

1. Right-click on the Start button and select Settings.
2. In the Settings menu, go to the Windows Update tab on the list on the left-hand side.
3. In the right pane, select Advanced options.
4. In the Advanced options menu you would find the option for Active hours.
5. Click on the downward-pointing arrow associated with Active hours.
6. Set the drop-down for Adjust active hours to Automatically.

Automatically adjust Active Hours in Windows 10

Windows Update allows enabling an option that allows it to monitor your active hours and change them. To configure this setting in Windows 10:

1. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update
2. Make a note of your current active hours
3. Click on Change active hours.
4. Toggle on the option which says Automatically adjust active hours for this device based on activity.

It will change the active hours; if you match the previous one, it should be different.

If you look at the screenshot, my earlier active hours were 09:00-17:00. After changing them, they have changed to 11:00-19:00.

I have been following this routine for a while, and it’s accurate. It’s a handy feature. Many like me don’t bother to change active hours. If notifications appear, we close them and get back to work. The function can change, and I will not get any more prompts for updates.

Why can you not just choose to download Windows Updates as a background process while working?

You can! But is your system strong enough? The process may cause high CPU usage. This will slow down every other process on the computer and might also freeze it. So, it is better to download the updates when your system is idle.

How does Windows decide the time to automatically download updates?

Windows 11 is smart. It decides when to download updates automatically by monitoring your CPU usage. Since a pattern is created, Windows will decide upon an ideal idle time.

Will my system reboot abruptly after Windows Updates are downloaded?

Not actually! Windows will prompt for a timeline to reboot your system after it has downloaded the updates. Windows knows no one likes to be disturbed while working.