When Microsoft announced Windows 10 Anniversary Update, I was excited, but soon my excitement turned to disappointment; 🙁 I could not disable Windows 10 updates? The Group Policies hacks do not work anymore.
This is not the only reasons I disagree with the Anniversary Update, but that does not fall under the scope of this article. Microsoft is not playing fair; they force you to keep your computer up-to-date. Never mind if you can spare the bandwidth or not.
The reasoning behind this is; an up-to-date Windows is more secure. Yea sure, but keeping my Windows updated has never stopped malware from leaking in.
How to Disable Windows 10 updates?
Should it not be the decision of the end-user to update their software or not? Then again, go read your software license; the software (Windows 10) is not really yours to begin with. Yes, you paid for it; but it is not a purchase agreement, it is more like a rental agreement.
I touched some interesting topics above and we can discuss them some other time. You found this article, because you would like to disable Windows 10 updates post the Anniversary Update. I will stop ranting now and give you a solution.
Disable the Windows Update Service to Disable Windows 10 Updates
The only way to disable Windows 10 updates post the Anniversary update is to disable and stop the Windows Update service. However, this is not a permanent solution. Windows 10 will in certain situations start the service back up automatically! The recommended solution is to set the connection type as metered. At least this way, updates will not be downloaded.
Enter Windows 10 Update Switch (Switch10)
I created Switch10 to disable Windows 10 updates quickly and efficiently, but also made it easy to enable updates if needed; because sometimes you want to update your computer. After consulting with the all-knowing Google, I found that the easiest method to Disable Windows 10 updates is to disable and stop the Windows Update service.
Disable Windows 10 Updates with Switch10
Remember; when you stop the Windows Update service, it will start right back up when you check for updates again as mentioned before. Enter metered connections; the second solution to the Windows 10 update dilemma. At least this way, you can stop Windows 10 from downloading updates and save on your bandwidth.
Metered Connections
With Windows 10 Update Switch you can set different connections as metered. At the moment Windows 10 only allows you to set Wi-Fi connections as metered. Switch10 allows you to set 3G, 4G, Ethernet and Wi-Fi connection types as metered. With Switch10, you can quickly set these connection types back too non-metered when needed.
Windows 10 Metered Connections
This does not disable Windows 10 updates, but will stop updates from downloading. This is the preferred method to use, because disabling the Windows Update service is unreliable. At least this still gives us some control over the Windows 10 Update process. I wonder, how long before Microsoft discontinue this feature?
Download Switch10 to Disable Windows 10 Updates
You can download Windows 10 Update Switch here. Hope you like it. Please let me know if you find any bugs or if you have suggestions. I love to hear from you. Your feedback is important and will enable us to create better tools.
Sharing is Caring!
It seems Windows 10 Pro 1607 has now acquired the ability to “un-disable” updates. I live in a rural area with very slow internet service, and find that even with it set as a “Metered Connection”, Windows Update sucks up way too much bandwidth. In the past, even after the Anniversary Update, disabling the Update Orchestrator Service for Windows Update and the Windows Update Service stopped a lot of the background activity. And they stayed disabled.
Recently I spent a day on a non metered link, and let it load KB4034658 among other things, and since then disabling the services is useless – Windows runs them whenever it likes, despite my efforts. Has anyone else noticed a change?
Maybe I need the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\wuauserv /deny=System=SD >NUL 2>NUL” setting?
I have tried to set to metered connection on several computers but I get an error message: Could not write to [key…], Unable to open requested key.
Any suggestions?
humm, well, why do you not supporting and advertise for Reactos..
so, the reaction against the Politic of MS .. let us buuild together a Windows..
a more honest and sincere Windows with an open source code under GPL
we are around the world the whole Programmers.. in this sense ..
“Hack the Planet” and help to build up together a WinNT under GPL.
Say it further and advertise for it, around the world !
Make it to a topic on Programmer Forums/Boards….
let us “feel like gooooddddd” 😉 Around the World.
http://ReactOS.org
best regards
Blacky
ReactOS has been around in tens of years and due to the compiling (not taking codes but reverse engineering it) needed they still managed an alpha Windows XP.
If ReactOS ever reach the level of Windows 7 with all the completed frameworks compatible i will use it.
Hey,
You should disable system access to the service to be sure it won’t be turned back on. 🙂
I wrote a script that does just that. 😀
Enjoy,
Will
@echo off
REM Requires psexec From https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/pxexec.aspx
REM Requires subinacl From https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23510
Title Disable Windows Update
Color FC
:DetectWindows10
REM Check If Running On Windows 10
ver | findstr /i “10\.0\.” >NUL 2>NUL
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 goto Windows10
GoTo NotWindows10
:Windows10
GoTo VerifyIfUserIsAdmin
:NotWindows10
GoTo CheckIfUACIsEnabled
:CheckIfUACIsEnabled
REM Checks If UAC Is Disabled
REG QUERY HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\ /v EnableLUA | (
FIND “0x1” >NUL
) && (
REM UAC Is Enabled
ECHO You Must First Disable User Account Control In Windows Control Panel
ECHO.
echo *** ERROR: Requires Admin Rights *** && echo. && pause && exit
) || (
REM UAC Is Disabled
GoTo VerifyIfUserIsAdmin
)
:VerifyIfUserIsAdmin
REM Verify The User Has Admin Rights
“%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe” “%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system” >nul 2>&1
if errorlevel 1 Title Needs Admin Rights && echo *** ERROR: Requires Admin Rights *** && echo. && pause && exit
REM Stop Windows Update Service
net stop wuauserv >NUL 2>NUL
REM Set Windows Update Service To Disabled
psexec -accepteula -s REG ADD “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\wuauserv” /v Start /t REG_DWORD /d “4” /f >NUL 2>NUL
REM Stop Windows (System Account) from Changing status of Windows Update service
REM Makes Sure Windows Update Service Stays Disabled
psexec -accepteula -s “%CD%\subinacl.exe” /nostatistic /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\wuauserv /deny=System=SD >NUL 2>NUL
Title Disabled Windows Update
PAUSE
EXIT
Thank you. Will see how I can include the function in Switch10.
No problem, enjoy.
Nice but I would like to see also a way to revert these changes in case you change idea…