Windows 10: Update bandwidth optimisation - percentage meaning

Hi everybody

The new Fall Creator update brings the much awaited update bandwidth management but I have a question and I could not find an answer online.
The control panel allows you to set a percentage of the bandwidth - percentage of what? How does Windows know my internet speed? I am concerned it just uses the network card speed instead.





However in the activity monitor section it also shows an "average download speed (user initiated)" which suggests two things
1. Windows actually knows the speed of the internet - which creates an interesting scenario: say my broadband is 50Mbit, Windows knows that and it is also told to use 50% of that. That night that my internet slows down to 20Mbit, will Windows try to use 25Mbit of it??

2. When updates are initiated by the user, they are not throttled down.





Thanks for your help.
Tony

:)

 

How are the windows update bandwith limitations calculated?

It is the percentage of the broadband speed, not the LAN Speed.

If you have lets says a 40Mbps connection and you have allocated 50 percent of the bandwidth, Windows update would use 20Mbps to download the updates.

I hope that helps!

 

Windows Process taking up too much of network usage.

The three processes you circled use a combined total of 1.1 Mbps of network bandwidth. Since most modern network adapters provide at least 100 Mbps of bandwidth, those processes are using just a tiny percentage of the total.

 

That's a new one on me.....where is this setting?

 

Hi, it's on the latest version of Windows Fall creator update - 1709. A much awaited feature - at least for me.

Limit Bandwidth of Windows Update and Store App Updates in Windows 10

 

Thanks.....from what I gather it's to help users that are on metered connections or if your are worried about data usage from downloads from other PC's. If I understand it correctly....I just had a quick glance at the info.

That said, I have that option turned off so it doesn't apply to me.

 

Windows update takes 100% of my bandwidth - 55Mbit download. I cannot do ANYTHING ELSE when the PC is updating. I had to set a manual update option via the group policies. This new feature is welcome but it is not clear how those percentages work.

I understand there are clearer options on the group policies (actual KBs) but was just wondering what those percentages are.

 

I suppose it is QoS

Unless of course MS have used the word "bandwidth" incorrectly and "I'll use 50% of your bandwidth" means "I'll upload 50% of what I download" like a torrent client.

Windows cannot possibly tell (without repeatedly polling connection speed) that I've moved from sitting on my router to sitting on my balcony and my bandwidth (via WiFi) has therefore dropped by 90%.

I don't know the answer but it is a very interesting question. Hopefully someone more technical than me will explain.

 

Given it is rather unclear what the percentages mean, I guess you could just use trial and error e.g. set the percentage to a low figure eg 10% and if that goes to much one way or the other, adjust up or down accordingly.

In most cases, I guess people want to minimise impact of downloads on performance so setting it low initially would be the logical thing to do, pragmatically accepting updates will download more slowly.

 

The question is what does 100% of bandwidth mean? 56k? 100Mbps? Who knows.

This is from 2003 QoS Tools and Settings: Quality of Service (QoS)

It seems nowhere is it defined (or at least I can't find it) how 100% of bandwidth is calculated.

That makes it an interesting question.

 

Uncheck that box for limiting your bandwidth, then turn off "Allow downloads from other PC's" and check to see how your bandwidth works/reacts.

 

Did you read the question?

 

Yes.....as there is no real world explanation of "WHY" and "WHAT" it means.....in the mean time it's best just to turn all that off.

 

I know what happens if I disable everything: Windows will use all available bandwidth. On several occasions I really could not do basic stuff like browsing. Over the past few months I discovered the group policies and I stopped automatic updates from there - I have reported the issue back to MS.
I am a geek and I was able to find out why sometimes I cannot buy a train ticket online but a normal person won't be able to do that - so it is nice to see Microsoft are working on the issue.
Indeed I can select 10% and see what happens but I was wondering if someone already had an answer for what seems like an obvious issue!

Maybe Windows update tests the bandwidth when starting a session and then reduces the download speed to what is selected on the configuration? Still, it feels an approach prone to issues but I understand MS does want to make Windows more accessible to people who don't know what "KB" means.

 

What type of internet connection do you have? What is your DL/UL speeds.....what are you paying for? Are you using a wifi connection?