Win 10 auto update BS

[booster]

Version 1903 just showed up as available update on the desktop overnight, by coincidence. Just finished putting it on. Big update, took a long time to download.


Looks like we now also have the 7 day and 35 day delays, so that certainly will help the travel once we get it on the laptop. Would need to find a secure wifi if out any longer, though. Still a huge improvement. It will be interesting to see how 1903 goes on the laptop, which has had layers of changes to kill off updates. They may not play well together.


Read a couple of articles that had the theme of Microsoft finally giving up on controlling everyone's updates completely. It would appear they were getting huge blowback from the business side and other travelers about metered connections and updates happening in the middle of business presentations and such.


It will be interesting to see what all else they messed with in the update.

[Bruceper]

You can use the Windows HOSTS file to block domains, no updates will be downloaded because the machine will not be able to connect.

[booster]

Originally Posted by markopolo

Pausing updates for up to 35 days seems like a good option when on limited mobile data:
Attachment 7743


That showed up in Windows version 1903. I have one laptop that is stuck at pre 1809 though. Both 1809 & 1903 fail about 3/4 way into the update on that laptop. All of my other computers are now on 1903. On one, I had to remove a USB drive before it would complete the update.

Don't know if you got the one laptop to update, but I had an issue with the laptop in putting on the last two updates, including 1903.


I tried bunches of the stuff that showed up as fixes upon a search without any success.


Finally stumbled across a fix that seemed just too easy, but it worked. I had tried turning off all the virus and security stuff without any improvement, but a poster on a forum said you had to use the software companies official removal tool to totally get rid of the software on the computer or it wouldn't work. As it turns out, he was correct, and it worked first try when I removed Kaspersky Internet Security with their removal tool. A lot of people were very happy he posted that as none of them had success with all the other fixes, too.

[markopolo]

Thanks for the tip. I haven't been able to update that one laptop yet. It fails every try. I even downloaded & created the installation media and that method of upgrading also failed.


I use Microsoft's antivirus but maybe there's some old files left over from other antivirus providers.

[Brad1998RD]

Send Microsoft the bill for your data usage for their updates

[thawk]

Not to defend Microsoft, but I believe they are trying to create a herd immunity. Problem is that people who don't update their machines are a risk to other machines in the network (internet). At the end, they are the ones that look bad when there is a massive hack/worm/trojan which infects a mass of computers.

There are options to kill the update process permanently (you won't be able to update in the future)

[cbrown154@me.com]

I have no love for Microsoft. The company wants you to do everything the way they want you to do it. I’ve switched all my computers over to Macintosh and have never looked back. I use a 13 inch MacBook air for my personal computer. I love it, it’s fast and it works.

[thawk]

Originally Posted by cbrown154@me.com

I have no love for Microsoft. The company wants you to do everything the way they want you to do it. I’ve switched all my computers over to Macintosh and have never looked back. I use a 13 inch MacBook air for my personal computer. I love it, it’s fast and it works.

That ironic right there. My impression when using apple products is that they tell you how things should look and feel while removing control from the user. I would rather use Linux (which I do for work) than anything Apple rips, I mean creates.

[cbrown154@me.com]

I am pretty techy by nature, but I prefer to spend my time using a computer to gather or disseminate information, not to do computing for the sake of computing. Nothing against programmers, but it’s like the old Apple ad that asked which computer was more powerful the Macintosh or the IBM? The answer was the one that’s easier to use. I have never been stumped by trying to modify an Apple Computer, course I don’t dig into the ones or zeros much.

[thawk]

Fair enough. That's one thing macs have going for them. They just work. Helps when you make the hardware and software (even though Microsoft can't get it right with their surface computers. I just can't knock them being that they did bring computers to the mainstream

[bobkfla]

I believe this should help you out:
https://wpd.app/
There are many other features here as well,but in settings you will see "block Windows Update" feature which works quite well.
But I should add for security, please ensure your Windows version is #1809 or later before using above feature.

[Alec]

Wow, does this thread take me back! I haven’t heard a good Microsoft / IBM / Apple kerfuffle for decades! I opened the first computer store in Mendocino County in 1980; pre-IBM-PC, Mac, and DOS. Personal computer choices (PC) were TRS (Trash 80), Apple, Commodore PET, (40 column screen) and that newcomer, Atari. On the business side were a few pioneers - I sold Vector Graphics – running CP/M. Ah the good ol’ days.

[Jimbo614]

Consider Apple? I left Microsoft back in 2011 when every time there was an update something else was broken. I have never regretted it.

[HitchNride]

Two things I can suggest -

1) Make sure your wifi adapter or usb ether is set as a metered connection. It sounds like you did this but there are settings to block update downloads over metered connections.

2) This might be a Windows Pro feature only, but you can definitely set it to block feature updates for 180 days, if I remember correctly, and critical updates for perhaps up to 90 days.

[HitchNride]

Originally Posted by Jimbo614

Consider Apple? I left Microsoft back in 2011 when every time there was an update something else was broken. I have never regretted it.

Apple is just as bad! I left Apple a few years back as they also started having constant updates, new issues with each update, etc. At least Microsoft got it together and only has monthly updates (remember when it used to be any time of day they released something, any day of the week?). Not to mention, I am fed up with Apple's sorry excuse for a "pro" laptop that cannot sustain any boost speed at all to get it to run reliably (the i9 chip), and their ridiculous margins on SSD storage. (oh, and complete lack of options if computer has an issue - no way to unplug hard drive and put it into another, functioning carrier or computer; and lately, they even disabled the data port so you cannot even get to the drive period if motherboard is gone)

[dhectorg]

Originally Posted by booster

I am completely fed up with Microsoft at his point.


When we travel we use a Verizon hot spot through a tablet for internet. We don't use data on phones except in rare cases.



When traveling, I have always kept the auto updates off unless we had a non metered connection to preserve our purchased data. It worked well for a decade for us, but now M has decided that there should be no way to turn off the auto updates. I have disabled in gpedit and every other trick I could find on the forums without success. Might work for a little while but all of a sudden turns itself on and update. We recently got socked with 5.3G of update during a two week trip that we had 4G paid for our use, and I had the update disabled and checked the day we left.


I have found a few more new methods of disabling auto, but now M has blocked changing those settings even with all the permissions set for everything and logged in as admin.


The forums appear to be full of users with the same problem, but fixes don't last or are now blocked. I have seen threads 1000 posts long with the same issue from all.


When out in the prairie on a crap connection barely running dialup speed, 5G will tie up the connection for days, not to mention the cost.


Does anyone have a clue what to do about this? Can update be unistalled and the put back on when wanted, or is Linux the only solution?

You can go into Windows 10 settings and tell it to postpone updates or to ask you before installing. Mine don't run automatically, unless I postpone for too long (several weeks), then they will run regardless.

[booster]

Originally Posted by dhectorg

You can go into Windows 10 settings and tell it to postpone updates or to ask you before installing. Mine don't run automatically, unless I postpone for too long (several weeks), then they will run regardless.

Now that 1903 has gotten here, we can finally do that also. It may have been a Pro only feature before. We can go 35 days max, which is less than some of our travels, so we would still have to find a secure wifi that often, but a whole lot better than just having it update whenever with no options.

[magicbus]

We live and work using our Mobley for Internet and setting it as a metered connection works great. My work threatened to not let me login because I was way out of date so I turned metering off and updated. Did the same to my DW’s laptop.