How to Stop Windows 10 Updates from Installing Automatically

Even three years afterWindows 11’s release, Windows 10 is still relevant and one of the most widely used operating systems. Windows has improved over the years but is far from being perfect. One of the major complaints about Windows 10 is updates as users have no control over them or when they can update the operating system because Windows updates install automatically. Although there is no direct toggle to switch off automatic updates in Windows 10, there are other methods to stop or pause updates that we shall see in this article.

While updates bring security and stability to an operating system, Microsoft delivers them at the cost of convenience. At times, updates rolled out are downloaded and installed on your computer without any consent or notification.

You might be amidst an important call, and your Windows PC may abruptly begin installing a new update. As everything happens in the background, many updates that you otherwise wouldn’t have downloaded are also installed automatically. These may even change a setting or remove a feature that you use regularly.

Automatic updates have been an active point of criticism for which Microsoft eventually rolled out a few options that you can change to stop them. Sadly, these options are not available as easily and are deeply embedded in the Windows architecture. This makes it difficult to find them, but fortunately, you have us.

Method 1: Disable Windows Update Service

To stop Windows updates at once, you would need to stop Windows update services. To find out which one and how to stop it, read the steps mentioned below.

As simple as this method was, you can experiment with the different options available. And in case you ever wish to update your Windows 10 PC, you can change the “Startup type” to “Automatic” at any time.

Method 2: Stop Windows 10 Updates Using Registry Editor

Registry Editor is similar to flags in chromeOS as it allows users to change most Windows settings and how the OS works. With a few Registry tweaks, you can take full control of the updates. Read the steps below to find out how.

This method gives you control over Windows 10 updates. We recommend setting the “Value data” string to 2 since YOU want to decide what updates you want to download.

Method 3: Block Windows 10 Updates Using Local Group Policy Editor

Like Registry Editor, the Local Group Policy Editor gives you more than just a single way to manage the system updates. It is a lot easier than the former method, but can’t be implemented on Windows 10 Home edition as it does not come with the Local Group Policy Editor. Having said that, follow the steps below:

You can experiment with different options in the drop-down menu to best suit your needs. In case you ever wish to change it back to the default option, select“3- Auto download and notify for installation.”

Method 4: Workaround to Stop Windows 10 Updates

In this method, you will make Windows believe that your internet connection is a metered one, and it won’t automatically download all the updates over it. Note that some priority updates will still get downloaded regardless of using this method. If that is not a problem for you, read the steps below to implement this method.

Note:

In case you want to do this for a different network, you can find the list of the networks your computer was previously connected to by clicking on “Manage known networks”. If you take this option, click on your desired network name and then click on Properties.

Windows 10 will now assume that you have a limited data plan on this network and won’t download all updates over it automatically.

Automatic updates in Windows 10 are a hassle but now you know more than one way to stop them. These are some simple methods you can use to take full control over your Windows system updates. Think we missed any other methods? Let us know in the comments section below.

Abubakar Mohammed

Abubakar covers Tech on Beebom. Hailing from a Computer Science background, the start of his love for Tech dates back to 2011, when he was gifted a Dell Inspiron 5100. When he’s not covering Tech, you’ll find him binge-watching anime and Tech content on YouTube, hunting heads in competitive FPS games, or exploring Teyvat in Genshin Impact. He has previously worked for leading publications such as Fossbytes, How-To Geek, and Android Police.

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