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How to Stop Windows 10 Updates

It's not considered a good idea to stop Windows from downloading updates. Microsoft did not provide a simple way to stop these updates that can sometimes consume valuable data bundles when you need the bundles for critical work. It is especially tragic when you have no way to obtain more bundles and Windows consumes the little that is left which you planned to use for some crucial work. Indeed it can be a nightmare. Apparently the folks at Richmond do not understand the computing environment is a lot of places on this earth so they more or less deleted the feature in earlier Windows versions that allowed one to stop updates. 

Odd that the ransomware attacks are much more common in the developed world. This may be an indication that folks in developing countries are more adept at managing updates on their Windows machines. 

This post deals with a single issue: How to stop Windows updates in order to save data bundles. It is crucial to turn on updates at least once a month to ensure security patches are downloaded and installed, therefore, the action described here exacerbates security issues on your computer while saving your bundles from extinction! This is the process:


  1.  Turn on the Windows Task Manager by pressing Ctrl, Shift and Esc buttons all at the same time (Alt, Ctrl, Del does the same thing).
  2. Select the services tab as shown and search for "Windows Update" service.


3.  You can right-click the service as shown below and select "stop". To start it, select "start."



As long as the Windows Update service is stopped, no updates will occur. However, Windows 10 seems not to favour this state of affairs so autostarts Update after a few minutes. To more permanently stop Updates, open Task Manager (Ctrl, Shift and Esc), find Windows Update and right-click as shown below:

Select Properties from the popup menu. You get the following dialog:


In the Startup type box, select Disabled to permanently stop Updates. Permanently disabling Updates stops all updates including essential security patches. Therefore, as indicated earlier, you need to regularly turn on Updates and download these essential updates else you are vulnerable to a broader range of cyber attacks. 


You can also take the following measures to help conserve bandwidth:

1. Set you wireless router as a metered device.
2. Download and install Glasswire bandwidth usage monitoring software (apparently also a firewall but I've never figured how to set up the firewall - a UX issue??)

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