Here is How to Turn Off Win­dows 10 Updates

Prayank

26 May 2017

Turning off Windows updates in earlier versions like Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 was easier as there was an option available within the settings of the PC which allowed users to defer the download and installation of the update until resumed manually.

But Microsoft got rid of this feature from the Update and Security settings in Windows 10.

While Windows updates are of paramount importance as not only do they bring about bug fixes for older versions but also update the built-in security software for Windows — which helps in averting malware attacks.

These updates become irritating when they slow down your PC, especially when you’re working.

Although the creators of Windows have gotten rid of a direct option to defer the Windows updates, there is still a work around this problem.

How to Turn Off Windows 10 Updates?

Not to worry, the workaround doesn’t require any additional software download or use of complicated command prompts too.

The workaround presents itself as a loophole in the settings of Windows 10, which doesn’t download any updates on a metered connection.

Normally, for users not on the Enterprise edition of Windows, all updates are downloaded and installed automatically, but if you set your active internet connection as a metered one, then the updates won’t download.

To set your active network as a metered connection, go to Windows Settings and click on ‘Network & Internet’.

On the next window, click on ‘Wi-Fi’ option on the side panel and select ‘Manage known networks’.

Now click on ‘Properties’ of your active network connection and toggle the ‘Set as metered connection’ button on under ‘Metered connection’ on the new page.

This will do the trick. Now, until you’re connected to the network marked as metered connection on your PC, Windows will not download any updates or install them.

But remember, it’s important to update your Windows, if not for the new features, do it for security updates lest your PC might also be held hostage by a ransomware.

So whenever you find yourself free, just toggle off the ‘Metered connection’ and switch it on once the update is complete and installed.

Last updated on 5 Jul, 2019
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

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Did You Know

Windows 10 is the last Windows since Microsoft is changing the approach of building and delivering OS.

How To Turn Off Windows Update In Windows 10

Windows 10 is a service, which means automatic updates are turned on by default and your PC always has the latest and best features. With automatic updating, you don’t have to search for updates online or worry that critical fixes or device drivers for Windows might be missing from your PC. Windows Update automatically installs important updates as they become available. But some users will not want automatic updates as it might take up system and network resources when they are doing critical work.

In Windows 8.1 and before, Microsoft allowed users to turn off auto updates completely. Unfortunately in Windows 10, Microsoft does not offer any option for general consumers to turn off automatic updates. But there is a workaround to turn off automatic updates in Windows 10. Follow the steps below,

1) Search for services.msc in Cortana/Search box and open it.

2) Find Windows Update in the services list.

3) Double click Windows Update services. In the Windows Update Properties Window, select ‘Disabled’ in the Startup type list box.

4) Click Apply and Ok.

From now on Windows 10 Update process itself will not start in your PC which means you will never get new updates from Microsoft. We recommend using this workaround only when you really want to disable Windows 10 automatic updates. If you want to revert back your changes, follow the same steps again, instead of ‘Disabled’, select ‘Automatic’ in the Windows Update Properties window and apply it.

If your PC is connected to a network where updates are managed by Group Policy, you might not be able to make changes to settings related to Windows Update. For more info, contact your organization’s support person. If you are an Admin, you can make configurations related to Windows Update by following the below steps.

1) Open Group Policy Editor by typing “Edit group policy” in Cortana or Search box.

2) In the Group Policy Editor, go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.

3) Click the Setting you need to change and configure it according to your needs.

Hope this helps!

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How To Disable Windows Update In Windows 10

Last Updated on April 4, 2020 by admin 27 Comments

Want to turn off or disable Windows Update in Windows 10? Here are thee ways to stop Windows 10 from automatically downloading updates or completely disable Windows Update in Windows 10.

It’s no secret that Microsoft has changed the expected location of many tools and components in Windows 10. Many of the settings have been moved from the classic Control Panel to the new Settings app, and during the process, some of the options have been completely left out.

In Windows 10, Windows Update settings have been moved from the classic Control Panel to the new Settings app. While the traditional Control Panel is still present in Windows 10 and we need to navigate to the classic Control Panel to access many of the settings, some of the familiar Windows Update settings have been completely removed.

In previous Windows versions, we could choose what updates are downloaded and installed. In Windows 10, users have very little control over updates.

If, for whatever reason, you want to turn off or disable Windows Update in Windows 10, follow the given below workarounds.

Method 1 of 7

Pause updates for up to 35 days

Windows 10 lets you pause updates for up to 35 days. That is, you can temporarily pause updates with ease. However, once the 35-day limit is crossed, Windows 10 will have to install available updates before you pause updates again. Nevertheless, this is a good option if you want to stop updates for up to 35 days.

Step 1: Go Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update.

Step 2: On the right side, click Advanced options.

Step 3: In the Pause updates section, select a date until which you would like to pause updates.

Method 2 of 7

Pause feature updates for up to 365 days

Features updates are the major updates Windows 10 receives twice a year. Around April and October, Microsoft releases major updates (feature updates) to Windows 10. Here is how to stop them for a year:

Step 1: Open the Settings app. Go to Updates & Security > Windows Update.

Step 2: On the right side, click on Advanced options.

Step 3: In the Choose when updates are installed section, you will see “A feature update includes new capabilities and improvements. It can be deferred for these many days” option. Select a number from the drop-down box. The maximum supported is 365 days.

Method 3 of 7

Use Group Policy to disable Windows Update

In this method, we are going to use the Local Group Policy Editor. Since Group Policy Editor is not present in Windows 10 Home edition, this method is not applicable to Windows 10 Home.

Step 1: Open Local Group Policy Editor. To do so, type Edit Group Policy in Start or taskbar search box and then press Enter key. Alternatively, open Run command box, type Gpedit.msc, and then press Enter key to open the same.

Step 2: Navigate to the following policy:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.

Step 3: On the right-side, double-click on the policy labeled Configure Automatic Updates to open its properties.

Step 4: Select the Enabled option. Under Configure automatic updating, select the second option labeled Notify for download and notify for install. Don’t touch the rest of the settings.

Click the Apply button. As mentioned before, this method will not turn off Windows Update, but you will be notified when updates are available to download. You can ignore the alert to avoid downloading and installing updates.

When this policy is enabled, you’ll see Some settings are managed by your organization message under Advanced options of Windows Update.

Method 4 of 7

Disable updates via Registry

If you are on Windows 10 Home, you can disable the automatic update by making modifications to the Registry. Here is how to do that.

Step 1: Open the Registry Editor by typing Regedit.exe in the Start/taskbar search field and then hitting the Enter key.

Step 2: Navigate to the following key:

Step 3: Right-click on the Windows key, click New and then click Key. Name it as WindowsUpdate.

Step 4: Now that you have created WindowsUpdate key, right-click on it, click New, and then name it as AU.

Step 5: Now, right-click on the AU key, click New and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it as NoAutoUpdate.

Step 6: Double-click on NoAutoUpdate and then change its value data from 0 to 1 to disable automatic updates.

Note that this disables automatic updates only. You can manually check for updates by clicking the Check for updates button in Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update page.

Method 5 of 7

Disable Windows Update service permanently

This is the best method to completely disable Windows Update in Windows 10. In this method, we will disable the service responsible for checking, downloading, and installing updates for Windows and other programs including Windows Defender.

Step 1: Type Services in Start menu or taskbar search box and then press Enter key. Alternatively, you can type Services.msc in Run command box and then press Enter key to open Services.

Step 2: Here, look for the service named Windows Updates. Right-click on it and click Properties to open Windows Update Properties dialog.

Step 3: Here, change the Startup type to Disabled. Click the Apply button and then reboot your computer. That’s it!

From here on, Windows 10 will not be able to check for updates. Good luck!

Method 6 of 7

Use Windows Update Disabler

Over the past few years, a bunch of applications has been released to help Windows 10 users block updates. One of them and probably the best of the lot is Windows Update Disabler. With Windows Update Disabler, you can disable the updates in Windows 10 with a click.

Method 7 of 7

Change your network type to Metered

This solution is no longer effective as Windows 10 now download priority or critical updates when on a metered connection.

By default, Windows 10 doesn’t download all updates when you’re on a metered connection. It downloads only priority updates when on a metered connection. You can make use of this by setting Metered connection property to your network connection.

To set a network as metered, do this:

Step 1: Navigate to Settings app > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi.

Step 2: On the right side, you can see the Wi-Fi network name (SSID) that your PC is connected to. Click on it.

Step 3: In the Metered connection section, turn on the Set as the metered connection option.

For ethernet connection, refer to our how to set an Ethernet connection as a metered network in Windows 10 guide for step-by-step instructions.

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Comments

The Update Disabler is the only one that actually does anything as it blocks connections to Microsoft servers. You will still get high CPU usage on start-up and shut down but at least it doesn’t try to take over the system in the middle of use. I just need to figure out how to disable Windows Defender.

MS mafia has become a typhoon. Sadam Housain of Iraq, Joseph Stalin of Russia and Adolph Hitler of Germany combined. The annoying and disturbing updating MS spy is out of control. Public should come together and put an end to this Tyron MS Mafia.

Sir Or Ma’am I totally sick of Windows 10 continuesly updates ever since I connect my internet with my system it automatically starts updates and eats my full data which I don’t like it all and one more thing is that my system start freezing because of windows 10 plzzzzz help me to get out of this problem thank u sir

Shirley to god, some clever hacker has figured out how to disable auto updates by now? I simply had to disable both lan and wifi for a year now. Making my shiny new laptop all but useless. Getting by on android for now . . . less than satisfying state of affairs.
Could there ever be a way to do it? I thought clever people would be all over this by now! Where did all the whitehats go?
Shirley

John Smith says

Those methods do not work.
Even a 5 yo knows that.
Shame on you.

well, the second section does not disable the update completely and it may download and bootloop your windows

This don’t work, everyone knows that already. Anyone who believes it is gullible as hell.
Microsoft has it developed so no one can “disable” bill gates minions are following his leadership.
Big questions is… Are YOU going to fall-in-line as the gullibles? Or are you going to FINALLY make a stand AGAINST microsoft and their queen (bill gates) CONTROL?

Hello Linux goodbye Controlled Empire of bill gates

This works beautifully until you restart your computer then you got to do it again. I have done it so many times, I can now do it with my eyes closed. I wish there was a way to do it PERMANENTLY and I mean PERMANENTLY. 🙂

Not being very computer savey,can I just kick the shit out of my pc and send the bits to Bill Gates to shove up his arse.

With thanks. I used the third method, desabled but error comes says ‘acess denied’.

Thank you. I was able to do this quite easily starting with Administrative Tools under Control Panel. All I want is a simple option to postpone Windows updates according to my own schedule. Windows 7 had that. Why was that option removed for Windows 10?

Jack D. Ripper says

We have computers connected to laboratory instruments that are required to be running 24/7. These random updates/restarts result in loss of data and money. I’ve been using windows since 3.1.1, but after the complete disaster that is 10, I will not buy another windows computer again. After my laptop with 7 on it dies, I will be switching to a Linux-based platform. Microsoft can go fuck itself.

After unrelenting Windows updates that will not allow me to disable and 2 years of having to wipe my computer to get rid of the updates, $1,500 for a Mac is looking pretty sweet. I cant take it anymore.

First thanks for the work on this. The only thing I found that helps.
Second, I did go into the Local Group Policy Editor but when I looked at the options in the Configure Automatic Updates I did not find “2- Notify for download and notify for install”.

This is what I found:
2-Notify for download and auto install
3-Auto Download and notify for install
4-Auto download and schedule the install
5-Allow local admin to choose setting

Has Windows shut it down in my install?

I have WIndows 10 Pro 1709 build: 16299.125

Like “Jake” said on Dec 21st 2017 and William Todd on Dec 18th 2017, I too was on Windows 10 Version 1607 with the Windows update service set to stopped and disabled.
(I am on an ethernet connection, so no metered connection unfortunately).
I’ve had Windows updates disabled since April of 2017, so its been 8 months with no updates installed.
On the 13th, I had a Nvidia driver update forced on me (388.13) along with the 1607 December Cumulative Update and the Windows Update Assistant.
The Update Assistant will eventually force you to upgrade to 1709, and I did.
I rolled it back with the “Go back to a Previous build”.

Disabled the update service again. Set device installation settings to “No”, went into the “Windows Update” folder in the task scheduler and disabled all the triggers for each of the tasks. Went into the “Update Orchestrator” folder in the task scheduler and deleted all the tasks for the Update Assistant and Update Assistant Calendar Run.
Also deleted the “Schedule Scan” task.
Also of course I deleted the Update Assistant from my programs.
But, for whatever reason the Windows Update service would keep going back to “Manual Start” (yet stopped) every single day.

Seems like if the Update Assistant gets ya… you might need to do a clean install as Windows is tricky and will mess with you…

After a year without being interrupted by updates, suddenly, like William Todd (18 Dec 2017), I also found the Windows Update service to have been re-enabled (though without having connected to any ‘unmetered’ connection), after I unexpectedly saw “Configuring Updates” on boot-up. I disabled it again. Now today I see Windows Upgrade Assistant appearing modally over the screen (fortunately with an option to hide it, otherwise it would have rendered the computer unusable) saying it doesn’t have enough disk space (8Mb needed) to install “Important Security Updates”. The process was in a folder “C:\Windows10Upgrade” that was created on 14 Dec. And again, Windows Update service has been re-enabled.

I killed the process, renamed that folder, and have changed the registry permissions so that I am the owner of and “Everyone” is denied all access to the key `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\wuauserv`. Hopefully that will stop anything being able to re-enable the service, but I wonder about `ControlSet001`, `ControlSet002`, etc. Could these be swapped in and out so that the service becomes enabled because a different ‘control set’ is selected?

William Todd says

Hmmm. I’ve succeeded in thwarting Windows Update for a couple of weeks on a new laptop running Win10 1607 that we’re testing by using your Method 3 above AND setting our WiFi connection to ‘metered’, but when my wife took it elsewhere and used a new (not set to ‘metered’) WiFi connection updates started downloading and at least one installed. When I checked to see whether the service was still disabled it was not, so Microsoft may have a mechanism that sneaks in a change on an unmetered connection without using the service and then un-disables it.

Have yet to try the Windows Update MiniTool in the related links list above but from the discussion at forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-update-minitool.64939/ it sounds promising.

Tony stark says

What if I disable window update using edit group policy

Windows 10 is made to work and fix any issue happen anytime online because it stays connected to Microsoft. But in case if it disturbs you, you should use another OS according to your requirements. To me windows 10 is good. I have never got my system crashed. It always worked fine for me.

If you want your PC becomes unusable install windows 10

i had to much trouble with os windows 10. blue screen every time which indicate that this software is failed software in human history. crashed os most of time

Is Microsoft completely fucking stupid not everyone has a computer with loads of memory so constant auto downloads are totally fucking useless as is windows 10!! so I have given the computer to the kids as its no good to me! Wake up you morons not everyone has a use for touch screens and useless apps which windows 10 comes with. I’ve now gone back to my 10 year old dell with XP which is the only OS that Microsoft has produced which is user friendly! You should remember you don’t own the computer and in automatically downloading these apps which I don’t want and did not ask for you are abusing my human rights and my right to privacy which is subject to legal action!! and is a flagrant abuse of peoples right to privacy.

John Stinehour says

Had to do this since the last anniversary update. Windows 10 is like the 1000K gorilla in the room.

Al metcalf says

WINDOWS 10 SUCKS. because of this. Friggin Microsoft buttheads. The only real option is number 3 but then you have a problem because you can no longer download anything from app store unless you reverse step 3 and allow updates. Once you do that windows will notice you need updates and even if you turn updates off again after getting app, windows automatically downloads updates. No friggin way around it. Screw you Microbutts!! I am finally going all Linux.

How do I disable windows 10 altogether after uploading the free version from the internet using my old windows 7 program?

hi this is my problem

after stopping windows update in services it automatically restarts, i have tried all the above possible ways and i am unsatisfied with windows 10 due to updates so i have downgraded to windows 8.1 pls help me

Method 2 with GPEDIT is more convenient than method 2: say I want to install WU but do not wand to instal new build JUST NOW when workink on metered connection. I’ve hoped that “Defer” introduced in 10162 or earliar, will help to postpone build 10240 download as I HAD already ISO but nevertheless download started. had to mount ISO and immediatly run Install from ISO. That helped wasting of 2 Gb download 🙂