Windows: Windows 10 automatically downloads updates in the background, which can be rough on slow or capped internet. Fortunately, there’s a way to pause downloads from the command line.
As Into Windows points out, Windows 10 doesn’t give you an easy way to pause downloads in the Settings app directly. Instead, follow these steps:
- Right-click the Start Menu and select Command Prompt (Admin).
-
Enter
net stop wuauserv
-
Enter
net stop bits
-
Enter
net stop dosvc
- Close the Command Prompt window.
Each command may take a few seconds to complete. If you want to reverse the process and resume downloads, follow these steps:
- Right-click the Start Menu and select Command Prompt (Admin).
-
Enter
net start wuauserv
-
Enter
net start bits
-
Enter
net start dosvc
- Close the Command Prompt window.
You can also enable the Metered Connection feature in Windows 10 to try to dissuade Microsoft from pushing large updates to your computer. However, this command line method is the most direct way to stop all the downloads.
How To Pause Windows Update Download In Windows 10 [Into Windows]
Comments
3 responses to “Pause Windows 10 Updates Easily From The Command Line”
Question, will the download restart the next time the computer is rebooted?
Most likely. The commands listed only stop the services. By default they are configured to start automatically.
To completely disable Windows Update so it only runs when you wish it to, you need to:
1. go into the Computer Management application
2. select Services from the panel on the left
3. right click on Windows Update from the list of services
4. left click Properties
5. Open the Startup Type: drop down and select Disabled
6. Click OK.
Now, you won’t get any updates and when you choose to have down time for updates, go through the process again but change the Startup Type to Manual and click the Start button on the dialog (not the Windows Start button).
Can’t speak for others but this is the routine I have so I keep my updates to a monthly schedule. It was a real bad move by Microsoft to remove the notify only option on Windows Update.
There is a chance that the jobs in BITS could get stuck.
Have a look at BITSadmin command tool.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753856(v=ws.11).aspx
Or take this code and place it in a batch file to run at startup. Disable each time you start. I have something similar in my startup folder. Works a treat