If your administrator has disabled Windows Updates or due to some corruption in Automatic Update settings, you may see an error message Your organization has turned off automatic updates in Windows Settings. If you see this error message while trying to check for Updates, then this post will help you fix the problem.

Windows 11/10 automatically searches for updates and installs them in the background so that users do not miss out on anything while being busy with daily work. However, when you see this message, Windows 10 will not automatically download the Updates.

The other messages you see would be:

Some settings are managed by your organization
Your device is missing important security and quality fixes
Your organization has turned off automatic updates
Your organization has set some policies to manage updates.

Your organization has turned off automatic updates

The reasons why this message could appear are-

The system administrator has set this policy
Choosing wrong automatic updates settings in Group Policy
Setting incorrect Value data of AUOptions in Registry Editor
Your system could be infected with malware

To resolve Your organization has turned off automatic updates error in Windows 10, follow these steps-

Restore default settings of Configure Automatic Updates in Local Group Policy Editor
Change Value data of AUOptions in Registry Editor
Start Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Turn on Windows Updates from Services

All of these are mentioned below in detail. You need to be signed in with an administrator account for doing this.

1] Restore default settings of Configure Automatic Updates

If you are using Windows 10 Home edition, you won’t have the Local Group Policy Editor. You need to add the Local Group Policy Editor to your computer.

If you are using other versions, this step is essential for you as it might be the primary reason why the Windows update process is interrupted. You need to open the Local Group Policy Editor on your computer.

For that, press Win+R, type gpedit.msc, and hit the Enter button. After that navigate to the following path-

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update

On your right side, you should find a setting called Configure Automatic Updates.

You need to double-click on it, select Not Configured, and save your change.

After that, check if you can get updates or not.

2] Change Value data of AUOptions in Registry

AUOptions or Automatic Updates Options is an essential registry key to manage Windows 10 updates. In other words, this Registry key is equivalent to the above-mentioned Group Policy setting. If your OS doesn’t have Local Group Policy Editor, you need to open the Registry Editor and make the necessary change. Before that, it is recommended to create a system restore point first.

Press Win+R, type regedit and hit the Enter button. You have to click the Yes option in the UAC window. After opening the Registry Editor, navigate to this path-

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

On your right side, you should get a REG_DWORD key named AUOptions. You need to change the Value data for this key.

2 – Notify for download and auto-install
3 – Auto download and notify for install
4 – Auto download and schedule the install
5 – Allow local admin to choose the setting

Double-click on the AUOptions key and set the value to 0 and see if it helps.

If it does not help, you can delete the WindowsUpdate key from your left side, and check for updates.

For your information, the WindowsUpdate key appears when your system changes the default Windows Update settings. In other words, you can restore the default update settings by deleting the WindowsUpdate key from Registry Editor.

3] Start Background Intelligent Transfer Service

BITS or Background Intelligent Transfer Service is a critical component to run Windows Update, etc. If this service is not running in the background, your system doesn’t move data using idle network bandwidth. As a result, the Windows Settings panel shows the error while finding updates. It is recommended to ensure that the BITS is running, and if not, you need to start it.

Open Services Manager and locate the Background Intelligent Transfer Service option under the Name column and double-click on it. Now, make sure that the Service status shows Running. If not, select Automatic or Automatic (Delayed Start) from the Startup type drop-down list, and click the Start button.

Then, you can click the Apply and OK buttons to save the changes.

4] Turn on Windows Updates from Services

For many people, Windows Updates is a big headache, even though it is a good practice to install various fixes from time to time. There are several tools and methods to turn off automatic Windows Update on Windows 10. If you used the Services Manager to get your job done, you need to ensure that the Windows Update service is running in the background.

For that, follow the same steps as mentioned earlier to open the Services window first. After that, open the Windows Update service and verify if the Service status is showing Running or not. If it indicates anything negative, you need to click the Start button to make it run.

If these solutions do not work, this is suggested to run the Windows Update troubleshooter and scan your PC with a trusted antivirus.