How to stop automatic updates on Windows 10

How to stop automatic updates on Windows 10 – this question is asked by users who need to prevent the installation of system updates on their computer. With default settings, the operating system automatically searches for, downloads and installs updates released for Windows on its own.

The corporation, with a frequency of about once a month, releases service packs for the Windows operating system. From time to time, Microsoft makes unscheduled updates designed to solve problems that arise in the operation of the OS, or close the gaps found in the Windows security system.

The main part of the updates concerns the security of the system. When updates are installed, system fixes are applied or some new features are added.

In addition to regular updates, Windows 10 releases so-called major updates, after which, in essence, a new version of Windows 10 is installed on the computer. These major updates are released once or twice a year.

Some users disable system updates for various reasons. The main reasons for not updating Windows are:

• sometimes it happens that after installing updates, the regular operation of Windows and installed programs is disrupted;
• if the user has a limited Internet connection, downloading updates affects the amount of traffic consumed;
• lack of free space on the computer disk;
• after applying the update, the user is afraid of losing the activation of the operating system;

How to stop automatic updates on Windows 10? You can solve the problem using the system tools, or using third-party software. In this article, we will look at 5 ways to stop automatic updates on Windows 10 using the operating system.

Simply disabling Windows Update (Windows Update) on the top ten, as in Windows 7 or Windows 8, will no longer work. The maximum that can be done in this way is to pause updates for up to 35 days.

How to stop automatic updates on Windows 10 (1 way)

Windows 10 tools automatically detect, download, and install updates on your computer.

On Win 10, you can stop updates in a way that will disable the Windows Update service. This method works in all versions of Windows 10, it ensures that Windows updates are permanently disabled.

Enter Administrative Tools from the Control Panel, or use the easier way: in the Search Windows field, enter the expression: “administration” (without quotes), and then open the Administrative Tools window.

In the “Administration” window, double-click the right mouse button on the “Services” shortcut.

In the “Services” window that opens, in the “Services (local)” section, find the Windows Update service.

Next, right-click on the Windows Update service, and select Properties from the drop-down context menu.

In the “Properties: Windows Update (Local Computer)” window, in the “General” tab, change the “Startup Type” setting to “Disabled”.

In the “Status” setting, click on the “Stop” button to stop the Windows 10 update service.

After that, Windows 10 updates will stop coming to your computer.

To enable the automatic update feature, in the Properties: Windows Update (Local Computer) window, select the preferred startup type: Automatic (Delayed Start), Automatic, or Manual.

How to stop automatic updates on Windows 10 using the Local Group Policy Editor (method 2)

Now let’s see how to stop automatic updates on Windows 10 in the Local Group Policy Editor.

Please note that this method is not suitable for Windows 10 Home (Windows 10 Home) and Windows 10 Single Language (Windows 10 Home Single Language). This feature is present in older versions of the operating system: Windows 10 Pro (Windows 10 Professional) and Windows 10 Enterprise (Windows 10 Corporate).

You must first log into the Local Group Policy Editor. Enter “gpedit.msc” (without the quotes) in the “Search Windows” box, and then launch the editor.

In another way, you can enter the Local Group Policy Editor in the following way: press the “Win” + “R” keys, enter the expression “gpedit.msc” (without quotes) in the “Open” field, and then click on the “OK” button.

In the “Local Group Policy Editor” window, follow the path: “Computer Configuration” => “Administrative Templates” => “Windows Components” => “Windows Update”.

In the “Windows Update” section, find the item “Configure automatic updates”, right-click on it, and select “Change” in the context menu.

In the “Configure automatic updates” window, activate the “Disabled” setting, and then click on the “OK” button.

After that, the operating system will not search for, download and install automatic Windows 10 updates.

Disabling Windows 10 updates in the Registry Editor (method 3)

The third way to stop Windows 10 updates is to make changes to the Registry Editor. This method works on all versions of Windows 10.

In the Windows Search box, type “regedit” (without quotes) and then run the command.

In the “Registry Editor” window, follow the path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

In the Registry Editor window, right-click on the free space. In the context menu, select “New” first, and then “DWORD (32-bit) Value”. Give the parameter a name: “NoAutoUpdate” (without quotes).

Click on the “NoAutoUpdate” parameter with the right mouse button, select “Change …” in the context menu.

Enter the parameter “1” (without quotes) in the “Value” field, click on the “OK” button.

To enable updates in Windows 10, you need to change the value of the parameter to “0” (without quotes), or simply remove the “NoAutoUpdate” parameter from the registry.

Enable metered connection in Windows 10 (method 4)

This method allows you to set up a metered connection in the Windows operating system, if the network is accessed via Wi-Fi.

Perform the following sequential steps:

1. Enter system settings.
2. From the Options window, go to Network and Internet.
3. Enter the “Wi-Fi” setting, click on the “Manage known networks” link.
4. Select your Wi-Fi network, click on the “Properties” button.
5. In the “Set as metered connection” setting, move the slider to the “On” position.

After that, the Windows 10 operating system will limit the search for and receive updates. With this method, some updates will be installed in the operating system. Major updates such as OS version updates will be disabled.

Disable access to Windows Update (method 5)

In newer versions of Windows 10, after being turned off by the user, the Update Center service on the computer is forcibly turned on after a while. Therefore, we need to block Windows Update from accessing Microsoft update servers.

First, disable the Windows Update service (see Method 1).

Next, go to the Registry Editor.

1. Follow the path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM

2. Right click. Select New => Section. Name the section “Internet Communication Management” (hereinafter without quotes).
3. Click on the created section “Internet Communication Management”, create a new section inside with the name “Internet Communication”.
4. Enter the “Internet Communication” section, right-click on an empty space.
5. From the context menu, select New => DWORD (32-bit) Value.
6. Name the newly created setting “DisableWindowsUpdateAccess”.
7. Double-click the left mouse button on the “DisableWindowsUpdateAccess” parameter. in the “Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value” window, in the “Value” field, select “1”.

In the Registry Editor, do the following:

1. Enter the section:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

2. Create a “DWORD (32 bit) Value”, name it “NoWindowsUpdate” with value “1”.

Create a new setting in the Registry Editor window:

1. Follow the path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

2. Create a “DWORD (32 bit) Value”, name the value “DisableWindowsUpdateAccess” with value “1”.

Close the Registry Editor window, restart your computer. When checking for updates, Windows Update will show the error “0x8024002e”.

To enable access to Windows Update servers, remove the previously created settings from the registry.

How to stop automatic updates on Windows 10 on the command line

To stop and then disable the automatic update service, use the command line:

1. Run command prompt as administrator.
2. Run the following commands in sequence:

net stop wuauserver
sc config wuauserv start= disabled

Run the following commands to start and enable the Automatic Updates service:

net start wuauserver
sc config wuauserv start= auto

Disable Check for Updates in Windows 10

If all else fails, disable checking for updates in Windows 10. If automatic checking does not work, then updates will not be downloaded to your computer.

To disable checking for updates, follow these steps:

1. Run command prompt as administrator. In the command line interpreter window, enter the command, and then press the “Enter” key:

takeown /fc:\windows\system32\usoclient.exe /a

2. Follow the path: C:\Windows\System32, find the file “UsoClient.exe”.
3. Right-click on the UsoClient.exe file, select Properties from the context menu.
4. In the “Properties: UsoClient” window, open the “Security” tab.
5. Under the “Groups or users” section, click on the “Edit” button.
6. In the “Permissions for the “UsoClient” group” window, remove all permissions for each group or user one by one. Don’t forget to click on the “OK” button.

After that, restart your computer.

To restore the permissions of the “UsoClient.exe” file, run the command prompt as an administrator, and then run the command:

icacls c:\windows\system32\usoclient.exe" /reset

Restart your computer.

If necessary, you can manually check for and install updates from Windows Update.

Disable Windows 10 update by replacing the update server

This method involves replacing the Microsoft update server with a non-existent update server. This solution to the problem is proposed by Microsoft on the official website.

This method works when using the Local Group Policy Editor, so it only applies to older versions of Windows 10.

1. Launch the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. In the “Local Group Policy Editor” window, follow the path:

Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Update

3. Double-click the “Specify Intranet Microsoft Update Service Location” policy.
4. In the window that opens, set the option to “Enabled”, and in the fields “Specify an update service on the intranet to search for updates”, “Specify an intranet statistics server”, “Specify an alternative download server”, enter the value: " "(in the English keyboard layout).
5. Click on the “OK” button.
6. Open the “Configure Automatic Updates” policy.
7. Set the “Do not connect to Windows Update locations on the Internet” policy to “Enabled”.
8. Follow the path:

User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Update

9. In the “Deny access to use any Windows Update tools” policy, activate the “Enabled” option.
10. Follow the path:

Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → System → Web Communication Management → Web Communication Settings

11. Double-click the “Turn off access to all Windows Update features” policy.
12. In the “Turn off access to all features of Windows Update” window, set the option to “Enabled”, and then click on the “OK” button.
13. Exit the Local Group Policy Editor, restart your PC.

Stop Windows 10 Update

This method, described in the documentation on the official Microsoft website, is suitable for all versions of Windows 10.

Go through the following steps:

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Follow the path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

3. Right-click on an empty space in the Registry Editor window.
4. From the context menu, select New, then DWORD (32-bit) Value.
5. Name the setting: “DoNotConnectToWindowsUpdateInternetLocations” (without quotes).
6. Click on the created parameter with the right mouse button, select “Edit …”.
7. In the “Change DWORD (32-bit) Value” window, in the “Value” field, set “1” (without quotes).
8. Click on the “OK” button.
9. Create a “DWORD (32-bit) Value” in this key with the name “DisableWindowsUpdateAccess” and the value “1”.
10. Right-click inside the “Windows Update” section, select “New” first, then “String Value”.
11. Name the parameter “WUServer”, right-click on the parameter, select “Edit …”.
12. In the “Change string parameter” window, in the value field, enter: " "(space character in the English keyboard layout), click the “OK” button.
13. Create a string parameter “WUStatusServer”, leave it empty with a space character: " ".
14. Create a string parameter “UpdateServiceUrlAlternate”, leave it empty with a space character: " ".
15. Follow the path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

16. Add a “DWORD (32-bit) Value” with the name “UseWUServer” and the value “1”.
17. Close the registry editor, reboot the system.

Disable Windows Update Service in Windows Update Blocker

The free Windows Update Blocker program disables the Windows Update service, preventing automatic updates from being received on this computer. The program does not require installation, it is launched from a folder.

Windows Update Blocker supports work in Russian, the program can be downloaded from the official website of the developer.

Do the following:

1. Unpack the ZIP archive with the program, and then run the application from the folder.

The program does not yet know the status of the Windows Update service, this is indicated by a brown icon in the “Status of the Service” parameter.

2. Activate the “Disable Updates” item. Additionally, a checkbox is automatically checked in the “Protect Service Settings” item so that Windows does not reset the update service settings after a while.
3. Click on the “Apply” button.
4. As a result, the Windows Update Service will be disabled and the status of the icon will turn red.

If you need to enable Windows updates on your PC again, in the window of the Windows Update Blocker program, click on the “Enable Updates” button. After that, in the program window, the service status will change its color to green.

Article Conclusions

If necessary, the user can stop automatic updating of Windows 10 permanently using the operating system tools: by disabling the Windows Update service, in the Local Group Policy Editor, in the Registry Editor, or in the Windows Update Blocker program.