An experiment with Win10 Home

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I’m trying to find an easier way to block updates on a Win10 Home computer. Based on a recommendation from VW, I used dcomcnfg to turn Windows Update
[See the full post at: An experiment with Win10 Home]

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Services.msc > Windows Update disable

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Instructions, please.

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There is various schedule tasks that handle and could enable automatic updates
they are grouped in two category:
MicrosoftWindowsUpdateOrchestrator
MicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdate

as for Home edition, it’s “Automatic” aggression is by design, it’s defined in the product policy license which is protected by kernel
meaning, setting some registry values won’t work like Pro or Enterprise

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So even deleting the Automatic App Update entry in Task Scheduler won’t keep Windows Update turned off?

(Thanks for the insight! You know this stuff better than anybody.)

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Yes, as long as you use the modern WU in Settings app, any changes will be reverted to automatic as soon as you hit scan or download

the only way seems to be by setting connection to metered

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Oy. And for those with wired connections and Home?

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There is a registry trick to mark all connections as metered
by changing all values in this key to 2
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionNetworkListDefaultMediaCost”

but it requires taking ownership first to grant permissions, not hard to do

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Mauro Huculak has details on how to make the change:

http://www.windowscentral.com/how-set-ethernet-connection-metered-windows-10

Two problems: Some syncing won’t happen (for example, OneDrive syncs sometimes on a metered connection, other times it doesn’t, and I don’t know why). And it’s painful to switch the Ethernet connection back to non-metered.

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And that’s not for the average Joe or Jane User. Taking ownership and Registry hacks are not in their bag of tricks.

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I’m trying to find an easier way to block updates on a Win10 Home computer.
——————————
Step 1: Go to KB 3073930 and download Microsoft’s Wushowhide tool.

Step 2B: Noel Carboni’s ConfigureAutomaticUpdates tool.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3053701/microsoft-windows/block-windows-10-forced-updates-without-breaking-your-machine-part-2.html
+
O&O Shutup10 for good measure.

Works for me. I’m still 1511

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If you’re on a Wi-Fi connection it’s easy.

If you aren’t on a Wi-Fi connection, I’m becoming more and more convinced that your best bet is to buy a dongle and connect over Wi-Fi.

Abbodi had a tip about tricking Win10 Home into thinking that an Ethernet connection is a Wi-Fi connection, and then throttling that connections.

If you’re on 1511, run wushowhide and hide the 1607 update:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3105827/microsoft-windows/how-to-temporarily-block-the-upgrade-win10-anniversary-update-version-1607.html

Do it right now, before your machine installs the latest updates.

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True
maybe Steve Gibson could create a nice tool to set it easily, like his wonderful Never10 🙂
https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

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Steve Gibson is a security expert, he would not create a tool to make internet less secure. 🙂

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I used this method at work on Win10 Pro and Home. I work for a library, and we have over 15 Win10 computers, all standalone. We couldn’t have them all updating at the same time; our bandwidth could not handle it, so we changed the registry and made them think they are metered, though they are mostly on Ethernet.

I’ve been doing some experiments, and the latest I want to try is: 1) manually downloading the cumulative updates onto a memory stick. 2) leaving the computers on metered connection so they don’t locate updates on their own. 3) manually updating those computers with that cumulative update throughout the month. 4) using wushowide to locate and hide the non-cumulative updates and then unhide them and let them update from time to time.

My concern with this is 1) I am behind on cumulative updates. Even if I install the latest cumulative update, skipping a few since the last, will Win10 still try to find and download previous cumulative updates? Or will it recognize it has the latest?

2) If I don’t use wushowide, how can I find these other updates that usually download around the same time as the cumulative update? You can manually download the cumulative update from Microsoft, but is there any place that lists and allows a user to manually download the other security updates from a Microsoft site?

and 3) That it will still be monstrously time consuming.

Thanks for listening and any advice you might have to impart for my situation.

Jodi

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1) Only latest is required and recognized
that’s the main reason for cumultive updates model

2) This KB articles lists all updates released to Windows Update
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/894199
you may check it regulary, or after each patch tuesday

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Abbodi86, thanks for confirming that about the cumulative updates (about the latest only is required and recognized). I was hoping it would be that simple.

Also thanks for the link.

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