How to manage Windows 10's Automatic Maintenance feature

On Windows x, Automated Maintenance is a feature that helps to keep your computer healthy and optimized past combining and running all maintenance tasks without impacting performance or energy efficiency.

Unremarkably, the automated system optimization happens once a day when you're not actively using your device. However, it's possible to modify the time and other settings to forbid missing a maintenance schedule because your computer was powered off, you lot were actively using it, or it'due south non behaving as expected.

In this Windows 10 guide, we explain in more detail how Automatic Maintenance works. We outline the steps to manage its settings to optimize your device at whatever fourth dimension of your choosing, and we'll too show you how to disable the feature if necessary.

About Automatic Maintenance on Windows 10
How to control Automatic Maintenance on Windows 10
How to disable Automatic Maintenance on Windows x

About Automated Maintenance on Windows 10

Automatic Maintenance is just a set of related tasks scheduled to run daily at two:00 AM past default. These tasks run at the same time in the background, but but if your computer is powered on and sitting idle. If your device is asleep and plugged into a power source, Windows x is also able to wake it upwardly to run the maintenance and put it back to sleep when it'southward washed.

During a maintenance session, the feature will run specific tasks, such every bit disk optimization and defragmentation, system and apps updates, security and malware scans, diagnostics, and other tasks with the sole purpose of keeping your device healthy and running at peak performance. However, the number of tasks will exist dissimilar on every computer, as software developers can also build their apps to plug tasks into this feature.

The optimization process can only run for one hour a day, and if tasks aren't finished within that window, they'll stop and resume during the side by side schedule. The only exception is when there are tasks marked as disquisitional, in which case, they will continue to run until they're complete even if y'all're actively using the device.

Information technology's worth noting that updates on Windows ten are more intrusive, and they'll download and install fifty-fifty outside the regular maintenance schedule. And so you tin can't use this feature to disable Windows Update.

In the case your computer isn't powered on, or you're actively working on it, the schedule to run maintenance tasks will be postponed until a later on time when tasks won't bear on performance or energy efficiency.

How to control Automatic Maintenance on Windows x

Although the maintenance feature works automatically on Windows 10, y'all can manage various aspects of Automatic Maintenance. Here'southward how:

Open Control Panel.
Click on Organisation and Security.
Click on Security and Maintenance.
Expand the Maintenance section to reveal the Automated Maintenance options.
Click the Change maintenance settings link.
Use the Run maintenance tasks daily at drop-down carte du jour to select the time you desire your organisation to perform the automated maintenance tasks.
- Quick Tip: If you lot don't want your device to wake upwardly at nighttime automatically, make sure to clear the Allow scheduled maintenance to wake upward my computer at the scheduled fourth dimension option.
Click the OK button.

Once you complete these steps, your calculator volition perform maintenance daily at the time you specified for a maximum period of one hour. Even so, if you lot're actively using your device, Windows 10 volition skip the schedule and effort once again at a later on time.

If you lot want to run maintenance immediately, you can click the Beginning maintenance pick within the "Maintenance" section in Control Console, but using this choice will keep to run tasks even if you're actively using your device.

How to disable Automatic Maintenance on Windows 10

Typically, Automatic Maintenance is a useful feature, and y'all should go on it enable to maintain your computer running smoothly, but if y'all're experiencing issues, such as an unexpected impact on performance, sudden crashes, and other bug, you may desire to disable this feature.

Warning: This is a friendly reminder that editing the Registry is risky, and information technology can cause irreversible impairment to your installation if you don't do it correctly. We recommend making a full backup of your PC before proceeding.

Although Control Console doesn't include an option to disable Automatic Maintenance on Windows 10, you can nevertheless accomplish this job modifying the Registry. Just employ these steps:

Use theWindows central + R keyboard shortcut to open theRun control.
Typeregedit, and clickOK to open the Registry.
Browse the post-obit path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\Maintenance
- Quick Tip: On Windows 10 Creators Update and after, you lot tin can re-create and paste the path into the new Registry'south address bar to apace bound to the key destination.
Right-click the newly created cardinal, selectNew, and click onDWORD (32-bit) Value.
Name the key MaintenanceDisabled and press Enter.
Double-click the newly created DWORD and set the value from 0 to 1.
Click OK.
Restart your computer.

After yous complete these steps, you volition still be able to see the "Maintenance" department and its options in Control Console, but the schedule will not run, and clicking the "Start maintenance" pick won't exercise anything

At any fourth dimension, yous can revert the changes to enable the feature again using the same instructions, but on step No. 5, brand certain to right-click the MaintenanceDisabled DWORD and select Delete to remove it.

While this guide is focused on Windows x, this feature isn't unique to the latest version of the Os, so you can besides refer to these instructions to manage Automatic Maintenance on Windows 8.1.

More Windows ten resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

Windows x on Windows Central – All you need to know
Windows 10 help, tips, and tricks
Windows 10 forums on Windows Central

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