Windows Scheduled Maintenance

[GromitD90]

I have a number of PC’s running Windows 10 Home  version 1909 with all of the latest updates applied.

All of these PC’s have Active Hours set as follows:- Start Time 9am End Time 3am.

Settings for automatic maintenance are Run Maintenance tasks daily at 4am with the option “Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time” selected.

I have a scheduled task that is also set to wake the computer at 2 am to allow a scheduled Malwarebytes scan to run at 2:05 am. If the computer is asleep at 2 am it is woken up and will stay awake until 2:45.

My issue/question is, with the above settings why does Windows decide to use the 2 – 2:45 time slot to download and install updates (as seen in the Event Viewer) and run maintenance activities ?

On the Control Panel Security and Maintenance page Under Automatic  Maintenance it lists last run date as 7/5/2020 2:44am  (as checked on 7/6).

It would appear that Windows ignores the Active hours settings.

The PC’s are attached to TV sets for video streaming. When I wake them up I want to use them straight away but quite often, it can take 5 or 10 minutes for them to become responsive as virus scans, windows updates and the like all seem to want to run.

My second question is – What are the correct settings I need to minimize scans. updates etc from occurring on wake from sleep during the Active Hours of 9am – 3am?

Thanks
Mike

[joep517]

Even though you have a scheduled task, your computer is not in use by Windows reckoning. Automatic Windows Updates are usually downloaded and installed between midnight and 6 am. Since your computer is awake and plugged in, WU does its thing.

As far as Windows Maintenance goes, if there were maintenance tasks not completed in the last maintenance window (one hour long) they will be done when the computer is awake. I’m not sure about starting a new maintenance set of tasks and how that relates to the active hours settings.

I think that the Active Hours setting does not do what you think it does. See A closer look at Active Hours in Windows 10 for more detail on this setting.

--Joe

1 user thanked author for this post.

Elly

[anonymous]

Active Hours only says, “We won’t automatically restart your device during this time”.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Elly

[GromitD90]

Thanks for the clarification on Active Hours. So bottom line there doesn’t appear anyway to limit (I.e time of day) when MS decides to download and install updates.

It’s really infuriating to wake up a PC to do something specific and then find it’s bogged down doing updates and virus scans. I have a laptop I use very infrequently there are times its unusable for 15 minutes after being woken up!

 

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