Windows 10: Please help me disable Windows Update

Just yesterday, I used the Run command (or whatever function it is) to go into the different Windows services to disable certain ones I've been told I don't need. I also disabled Windows Update because I've gotten totally fed up with getting updates and then having my computer shut off at the worst times to install it, and then having to sometimes spend weeks trying to get all the problems fixed that were caused by the updates, having to reinstall programs that were lost, and having to change my settings back to the way I originally had them. Windows Update has done far more harm than good, which is why I disabled it, supposedly.

Just tonight, I was about an hour into a project I was working on, and I wanted to take a break and watch some TV. So I put the computer to "Sleep" and intended to finish up after about an hour. At one point, I looked back at my computer screen and noticed that it was restarting. I later found out that it had shut down and restarted for some reason. Since it was not a planned, my project was closed and I lost a good deal of my work and had to start over again. I then checked the Update area under Settings and it didn't show anything had been updated. It only shows a pair of "failed" updates dated from yesterday, even though I didn't do any updating yesterday. However, earlier in the evening I get getting prompted to restart my computer to install updates, even though I had just done that a week ago and hadn't downloaded any more since I don't want them. I wasn't even online, so there was no downloading taking place. I also made sure that my update settings were such that I would have to manually choose to do a restart. But, it happened by itself anyway, and now I'm having to redo a bunch of my work once again.

Please, if somebody would--please show me how to turn the damned Windows Update OFF so I don't have to keep going through this? It's been nothing but a headache and I just want it disabled.

:)

 

Log on to profile

i enter my password and for a millisecond I can see my desktop then it goes back to log in. I do not have an IT person and Microsoft says they cant help & Lenovo said, "my supervisor said I cant talk to you about this". Does anyone have a suggestion? Please
and thank you

Moved from: Windows / Windows 10 / Performance & system failures

 

Please tell me how to disable Windows 10 update for home version

Thanks for the info. I've tried this before then after a while it came back. No idea why but its happened a few times.

It even installed "Windows 10 Update Assistant" while the updater was disabled.

 

I can understand your frustration but there is a better solution.
I have updates set to Notify me- so I can download them when I want, not when MS wants.
I get an action centre notification; if I click on that, I see what the update is. I can then choose to download it when I want.

There's also Active Hours in Settings of course to limit when restarts occur.
Disabling updates is not the most appropriate course of action.

Try Windows Update Minitool (free) which is one way to achieve that setting, as well as several other functions.

 

Disable Windows 10 Automatic Updates with Win Update Stop | NoVirusThanks

 

If I make the adjustment using the Active Hours in Settings, would I be able to set a time for updates to restart, or would I only be able to indicate when I don't want updates to restart my computer? Also, if I set it to only restart at a time such as 3am while I normally would have the computer in Hibernate (and unplugged), would it then wait until I started up the computer the next day and then restart immediately? I'd like to just have it restart when I say so--and without it prompting me about it every 10 minutes that it needs to restart. It's bad enough that I have Malwarebytes and Avast constantly telling me that my settings are out of date and that my computer needs to restart, regardless of how recently I updated them.

To be clear, the unexpected shutdown and restarts of my computer (even when in sleep mode) isn't the only reason I'd like to disable Windows Updates. It's also the fact that I lose programs and default settings as well. Having to spend a week on the internet to research other problems that always follow updates doesn't help either. My computer seems to be at it's best when Microsoft isn't messing with it.

 

Hi, you raise several ponts.

1. Restarts.
I've personally never experienced one- but I have had updates set to Notify me for a long time. (That's an option in Group Policy if you have Win 10 Pro- there's nothing magic about it - utilities like Windows Update Minitool simply use the same registry settings as the Group Policy editor).

Active Hours- my personal experience of this was (in 1703) that if an update requiring a restart arrived during the active hours period then even after the expiry of that period, there was no automatic restart, which I had rather thought there might be.

In Settings there is also this which I understand is only active (not greyed out) if there is an appropriate update pending.




See:
Schedule Restart Time for Windows Update in Windows 10 Windows Update Activation Tutorials

2. Effect on programs and settings.
Routine updates - unless defective in some manner as has sometimes been the case- should have no effect on these.

Upgrades to the next major build, however, are much more significant.

I found I had to reinstall or repair or re-register several programs after upgrading to 1709, albeit that's a small %ge of those I have installed. Security software is at risk at when upgrading, but that's well documented. I was surprised at a couple of others being affected.

If you have Win 10 Pro you can choose, as I do, to defer upgrades for at least 365 days. In my case I have one program that is only made compatible some months after a new build- Aeroglass.

3. I use Avast free, and don't experience

-perhaps you have a different edition. If the prompt is incorrect, perhaps there is an option to disable that check.

4. The best way to control when updates or upgrades are applied in my experience, is to set updates to Notify.

I find it unfortunate that MS's default setting is the one which gives the user the worst experience.

 

My current edition of Win10 is the 1709 home edition.

I actually had gone to the Restart Options screen you showed last night and the area where the time can be adjusted. I looked at it because I was being notified that a restart was needed. However, I believe it was greyed out like the example you showed, so I left it alone thinking I was alright. It was quite a shock later to see the computer restarting after I had put it in Sleep mode. It meant that my work had just been lost since I was still in the middle of it. It would just be nice if I could use my computer to accomplish things rather than having to compete with it, and then often end up on the losing side.

As for setting updates to "Notify", I already have done that, which is why I was being notified about the restart beforehand. It gave me the option of restarting now, or waiting until a future time to do it myself. I elected to wait, but apparently the computer decided it didn't want to wait.

 

Hi, I think the clue there is that you were told a restart was needed. I think that implies the update had been downloaded. The correct use of Notify to avoid that is not to download the update.

The Action Centre notification lets you click on it so Settings opens and shows you the pending updates. At that point you still have the option to ignore or download the update. Is that what you saw? Or are we talking about something different?

If you wish to check what happened you can
a. Look at your Update History and check the date/time of any applied update
b. Look at your event log and events preceding an event id 6006 (restart) - this might be hard to make much of though.

 

From what I remember, I was getting notifications that my computer would need to restart to install an update. I looked in Updates under Settings and found one that had the label "waiting for restart", or "waiting to install". That was my first clue that anything had downloaded in the first place. In my update history which I checked after the restart, it showed a pair of failed updates from the previous day (the 27th), but nothing for the day in question (the 28th).

 

The only other thing I can think of is that this was one of the updates - (I think there may have been two)- that whilst validly applied, still showed that a restart was needed.

There is a thread per update per build in News section, and that defect is mentioned towards the end of the first post.
If you know which update is in question, you can check there. I know I had that symptom occur, and a further restart did not help. My solution at the time was to uninstall the update ad reapply it.