How do I disable automatic Windows updates?

Windows 10 and 11 won't let you disable updates completely (Microsoft doesn't want you to 😅), but you can slow them down quite a bit. Go to Settings > System > Update & Security, click on "Advanced options" and pause updates for a couple of weeks, or choose to download them only when your PC is idle. If you're using Windows Pro instead of the Home version, you have access to the Group Policy Editor where you can configure updates more granularly - open gpedit.msc and go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Update. If you really don't want to take any chances, the nuclear option is to set your connection as "metered" in network settings, so Windows has a hard time downloading updates automatically.