How to temporarily prevent a Windows Update from reinstalling in Windows 10

Symptoms

In Windows 10, your device is always kept up to date with the latest features and fixes. Windows Updates are installed automatically, with no need to select which updates are needed or not needed. In rare cases, a specific update might temporarily cause issues with your device, and in this case you will need a way to prevent the problematic update from reinstalling automatically the next time Windows Updates are installed.

Resolution

If an update you are being offered is causing system crashes or instability and Windows was operating correctly prior to that change, you can follow these instructions to prevent the unwanted driver or update from being installed:

Type “View Installed Updates” in the Search box and then click on View Installed Updates – Control Panel from the Search results.

To uninstall the unwanted update, select it from the list and then click Uninstall.

To temporarily prevent the update from being reinstalled until an updated fix is available, a troubleshooter is available that provides a user interface for hiding and showing Windows Updates and drivers for Windows 10. You can obtain and run the «Show or hide updates» troubleshooter by downloading it from the Microsoft Download Center:

Download the «Show or hide updates» troubleshooter package now.

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

When you click on the download link, you will be prompted to open or save wushowhide.diagcab.

Opening wushowhide.diagcab will launch the troubleshooter. Then click Next to proceed and follow the instructions provided by the troubleshooter to hide the problematic driver or update.

More Information

3073930 — How to temporarily prevent a driver update from reinstalling in Windows 10

Windows Update stuck downloading updates in Windows 10

If you find that your Windows Update is stuck downloading updates at 0 % or any other figure in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista as well, then this post will help you fix the issue.

Windows Update stuck downloading updates

If your Windows Update is showing available updates and your computer starts downloading them, it may happen that at some point it just gets stuck and stops downloading. It will show a constant figure but there will be no progress. The figure in your case could be 0%, 23%, 33%, or any other, but every time you try to download the updates, you find that they are stuck on that particular figure, even if you leave it for an hour or two. I faced this issue and my downloading was stuck at 23%, when I was trying to get Windows Insider Builds.

This is what helped me and I am sure that it could help you too. You may click on the images to see their larger versions.

From the WinX Menu, open Command Prompt (Admin). Type the following one after the other and hit Enter:

This will stop the Windows Update related Services.

Next browse to the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder and delete all the files and folders inside. Press Ctrl+A to Select All and then Delete.

If the files are in use, and you are unable to delete some files, restart your device. After rebooting, run the above commands again. Now you will be able to delete the files from the mentioned Software Distribution folder.

After you have emptied this folder, you may restart your computer or you may type the following commands one at a time in the CMD, and hit Enter to restart the Windows Update related Services.

Run Windows Update again and see.

You will be able to download and install the updates successfully. Once done, you will see that a restart has also been scheduled.

I suggest you restart immediately to complete the process.

This worked for me and I hope it does for you too.

If it does not, you may try this:

Run Windows Module Installer

The Windows Module Installer is a built-in Windows 10 service. It lets you fix the Windows updates which are stuck.

To use this, open a command prompt with admin privileges.

Type the following and hit Enter:

Once successfully executed, you should see [SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS display within the Command Prompt console.

Exit the command prompt, and check if the buttons are back to normal.

If nothing helps, you can download Windows 10 ISO and make a fresh install too.

How to stop windows 10 from downloading updates

I installed windows 10 yesterday only with genuine licence. I have a question. I have a very expensive internet data plan. How can I stop windows 10 downloading automatic updates? I couldn’t figure out so I tried another trick but that didn’t work either. I unplugged my data card from the system so it couldn’t download and stuck at 1 %. I downloaded these all updates manually from outside and installed one by one. Still my windows update is trying to download same updates. Is there any service or process that can be stopped / killed to prevent windows 10 from downloading these updates? Also is there any command to freshly check for new updates? Currently windows update has all these updates in history which I have already downloaded from somewhere else.

Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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For the time being, I temporarily disabled windows update service from services.msc so it stopped checking for updates and downloading. But still, since I already downloaded these all updates from a different (unlimited plan) internet connection and installed one by one (not downloaded from my own internet plan). After enabling the windows service again, it again started downloading all those already installed updates. So I had to stop and disable windows service again. It then stuck at 10%.

Any way to freshly check for new updates? Currently it is still trying to download same updates which I have installed manually one by one. Windows 10 is not able to remove installed updates from it’s history.

Also there seems to be a bug for updates, that if I stop my data connection (not disabling the windows service). It keeps showing the same message similar to — Downloading the updates 10% completed. It should have stopped if data session ended. I was also not able to figure out how to forcefully make the windows check for updates rather than downloading without verifying these updates have already been installed or not.

I have also read one thing on some blogs, if I set my current connection as a metered connection, then it won’t automatically download and install updates. But I couldn’t figure out how to do that also.

Please let us know if you find any clue for these issues. Thanks in advance.

Windows update stuck in ‘Stopping’ state

I would like to have more information about this issue. You have mentioned that the Windows Update issue had started recently, so, what are the recent changes that you have made to the computer prior to the issue that you had initially with Windows Update. Also please answer to these questions:

1) Do you get any error message/code when you try to launch Windows Update? If yes, what is it?

2) Do you have any third party security program installed on the computer?

You have also mentioned that the support engineer from Microsoft who was working on your computer, stopped the command line tool which scanned for the corrupted system files, in between. From this description, I think he was performing an SFC Scan and after which you are unable to launch Windows Update to check and run the pending updates. It also shows in “Services” console and in “Task Manager” that the windows update service has stopped. So, let us first reset the Windows Update Components and check if the resolves the issue.

Method 1: Manually Reset Windows Update Components

a) Press “Windows Logo” + “X” keys on the keyboard and then select “Command Prompt (Admin) ” from the menu.

b) Copy the following commands and then right click in the Command Prompt window and select “Paste ” to paste all the commands in it.

ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old

ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old

net start msiserver

c) Please wait for the process to complete and then press “Enter”.

d) Type “Exit ” in the Command Prompt to close it.

Now, run the Windows Update and check if it installs all the pending updates. There are also possibilities that something might have happened when the SFC Scan was stopped in between while it was repairing/recovering the corrupted system files. So, let’s try that again and check the result. You may need to use the Windows 8 installation disk for the SFC Scan to recover the corrupted system files.

Method 2: Run an SFC Scan

The sfc /scannow command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.

a) Press “Windows Logo” + “X” keys on the keyboard and select “Command Prompt (Admin) ” from that menu.

b) On the command prompt window, type the following command, and then press “Enter”

c) Follow the on-screen instructions and complete the scan.

Important: It may ask for windows installation DVD to fix and to enable SFC to make more than minor repairs. Some files saved on your computer might get deleted when fixing corrupted files.

Now, run the Windows Updates and check if that resolves the issue. Please do get back to us with the results. If the issue persists, we’ll be glad to assist you further.

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How to stop automatic updates in Windows 10

How do I stop Windows 10 updating automatically. Basically, I don’t want to update my OS. Windows update is very annoying and it breaks the system sometimes. In windows 10 I don’t find any option to turn off automatic update.

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Basically, at the moment there is little you can do to stop W10 updating itself for most W10 versions. This is unlikely to change by much as far as I can tell from the info around on the www.

Apart from the Enterprise version (I believe), you cannot pick and choose updates for most versions of W10 (Home etc), Its all automatic. Unlike with older versions of Windows which allowed you to set Windows Update in a number of different ways.

There are a few minor tweaks you can do, like:

But basically, you have to accept the update(s) as they are offered.

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To disable Windows 10 Automatic Updates:

1. Go to Control Panel — Administrative Tools — Services
2. Scroll down to Windows Update in the resulting list
3. Double click the Windows Update Entry
4. In the resulting dialog, if the service is started, click ‘Stop’
5. Set Startup Type to Disabled

Please Note: if you disable Windows 10 Updates, your system will be at risk from attack

1. Windows Defender will not be updated
2. Operating System patches will not be applied
3. You will not be able to use the Windows Store
4. Windows Apps will not update and possibly fail

On the plus side your hardware will continue to work!

If you do decide to turn off Automatic Updates, you should download them from the Microsoft Catalog Page and install them manually at a convenient time. Just enter Windows 10 + your current build number into the search box (1607, 1511 . . .etc.) to get the appropriate updates — for example: Windows 10 1607

Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 — 17.3″, i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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This no longer works, Windows is enabling that service on it’s own now. I’m attempting to disable via gpedit.msc, but the service disable I’ve been using for a while doesn’t stay disabled anymore.

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Every time an update tries to occur it destroys my entire network internet connection and all the users start screaming. That’s why it should be made easy and sticky to only notify of updates but not download or do them until the users gives consent. This is an issue for all types of users, dumb or sophisticated. MS just makes it ridiculously hard to take control of updates, and particularly hard in W10 Home.

Once you think you have it stopped then when you do allow an update they turn it all on again for you.

Now they’ve removed the registry value you can tweak to accomplish this in Home version, and you are forced to collect a bunch of missing features and get them installed in your OS again. If you do get it working it will probably all just disappear again next time you do an update.

Yet another reason why users hate Microsoft.

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Honestly a bad situation.

I have no problem if Windows notifies me and I can apply updates when I have time to fix everything the update breaks.

But unilaterally applying an update that can eff up my system without allowing me to accept or delay that update is not good. I’ve had updates bomb out my system the evening before a critical presentation and, oh-well, you’re out of luck. Enjoy your brick in front of a customer.

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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 labelled Configure Automatic Updates to open its properties.

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

Click 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 simply 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

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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 labelled Configure Automatic Updates to open its properties.

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

Click 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 simply 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

Thanks for the information. However, I have windows 10 home edition.