Delay feature updates by up to a year — via Microsoft Learn

Group Policy

Open gpedit.msc (Pro, Enterprise and Education only) and go to:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Manage updates offered from Windows Update > Select when Preview Builds and Feature Updates are received

Registry equivalent

Double-click a .reg file and confirm to merge it. Right-click → Edit first if you want to read it, which is always a good idea with any .reg file from the internet.

Apply

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Oddbyte.Me: Delay feature updates by up to a year

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"DeferFeatureUpdates"=dword:00000001
"DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays"=dword:000000b4

Undo

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Oddbyte.Me: undo Delay feature updates by up to a year

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"DeferFeatureUpdates"=-
"DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays"=-

Same thing from a command prompt

Run in an administrator Command Prompt or Terminal.

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v "DeferFeatureUpdates" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v "DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays" /t REG_DWORD /d 180 /f

Undo:

reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v "DeferFeatureUpdates" /f
reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /v "DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays" /f

Change 180 to any number of days from 0 to 365. Don't combine it with the target-version policy: Microsoft says feature-update deferrals aren't in effect while a target version is set.