The "Check for Updates" button in Windows 10 is now safer

Microsoft has promised to stop installing unstable updates when you click "Check for Updates" and it works now. Rather than automatically installing such updates, Windows offers you a "Download and Install Now" button. The button started appearing on PCs today.

We previously warned that clicking the "Check for Updates" button would often install unstable updates. Windows Update normally waits to install large updates such as the October 2018 buggy update of Windows 10 and the C and D cumulative monthly updates. However, if you clicked on "Check for Updates" at the wrong moment, Windows would install these updates immediately. No warning would occur and there was no way to cancel it.

In other words, the "Check for Updates" button often meant "Give me unstable updates that require more testing." In fact, Microsoft has warned people not to click on them in blog posts that no average Windows user would read.

Microsoft announced major changes to Windows Update on April 4, 2019. Rather than automatically installing these updates, Windows presented them as optional in the Windows 10 Settings application. Windows day will have a "Download and install now" link Stable updates are available. You have the choice to install them even if you clicked on "Check for Updates".

RELATED: Microsoft is constantly abandoning forced Windows 10 updates

As Bleeping Computer has seen, some Windows 10 users already see this interface. An "Other Updates Available" section provides a cumulative update that has not been installed automatically yet. We have not seen this interface on any of our Windows 10 systems yet, but Windows Central's Zac Bowden did it. Microsoft is probably doing it slowly.

Looks like the "Additional Updates Available" feature of Windows Update is live. pic.twitter.com/jQUAEWQQZq

– Zac Bowden (@zacbowden) May 2, 2019

The change would appear on systems running the May 2019 update of Windows 10, also known as version 1903 or 19H1, but could also appear on older systems.

When the May 2019 update will be available, the installation will not be immediate. You will need to click on one of these "Download and Install Now" links. Otherwise, you can keep your current version of Windows 10 until 18 months after it is released. And when these C and D updates arrive by the end of the month, you can safely click "Check for Updates" without installing them. Wait a few weeks and you will get the updates in the B update next month after their test.

RELATED: Now, Windows 10 has updates C, B and D. What is Microsoft Smoking?