How to Turn Off Windows Automatic Update in Windows 10

Windows 10 updates are helpful as they introduce many new features as well as fixes for critical problems. Installing them can protect your PC from the latest security threats and keep your computer running smoothly. However, the update at regular intervals can be a headache sometimes. It uses so much internet and makes your other process slow. You may wonder how to turn off Windows 10 updates. Well, there is no direct option to completely disable Windows updates on Windows 10. But don’t worry. In this guide, we’ll show you 5 easy methods you can try to stop Windows 10 updates.

Follow the methods described below and you will know how to disable Windows Update on your Windows 10 PC.

Way 1: Disable Windows Update Service

The easiest way you can turn off Windows 10 updates is by disabling Windows Update Service. This will help to stop Windows from checking for updates, then avoid unwanted Windows updates. Here’s how to do it:

1. Press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to open the Run command.
2. Type in services.msc and press OK to bring up the Windows Services program on your computer.
3. You will see a full list of services. Scroll down to find the “Windows Update” option and double-click on it to open the Windows Update Properties window.
4. In the drop-down box of “Startup type”, select “Disabled” and click “Stop”. Then hit “Apply” and “OK” to disable the Windows Update service.
5. Restart your Windows 10 computer and you will enjoy it free of automatic updates.

Please note that disabling the Windows Automatic Update Service will temporarily halt any Windows 10 cumulative updates, and the service will re-enable itself occasionally. So you should open the Services program and check the Update status periodically.

Way 2: Change Group Policy Settings

You can also stop Windows 10 automatic updates by changing Group Policy settings. Please note this method only works in Windows 10 Professional, Enterprise, and Education edition since the Group Policy feature is not available in the Windows 10 Home edition.

1. Open Run by pressing Windows logo key + R, then enter gpedit.msc in the box and click OK to bring up the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.
3. You’ll see various options on the right-hand panel. Find “Configure Automatic Updates” and double-click on it.
4. Select “Disabled”, click “Apply” and then “OK” to disable Windows automatic update on your Windows 10 PC.

If you want to update your Windows in the future, you can repeat the above steps and select “Enabled” to turn on the feature. Actually, we suggest you always choose “Enabled” and “Notify for download and auto-install”, so that you won’t miss important Windows updates. This will not download the Windows updates but only notify you whenever there is an update.

Way 3: Meter Your Network Connection

If you’re using a Wi-Fi network on your computer, you can try to disable Windows 10 automatic updates by lying to Windows that you have a metered connection to the Internet. Under such circumstances, Windows will assume that you have a limited data plan and will stop installing updates on your computer.

1. Press the Windows logo key and type wifi in the search bar, then choose “Change Wi-Fi settings”.
2. Now click on the name of your Wi-Fi connection, then toggle the “Set as metered connection” switch On.

Please note that this method won’t work if your computer is connecting to Ethernet. Besides, some other applications that you are using might get affected and not work properly after setting up a metered connection. Therefore, you can disable it again if you are facing issues over there.

Way 4: Change Device Installation Settings

You can also turn off Windows 10 updates by changing device installation settings. Please note this method will disable all the installation settings from manufacturers and other apps.

1. Press the Windows logo key and type control panel in the search box, then open Control Panel.
2. Go to System, you will find “Advanced system settings” on the left-hand panel. Just click on it.
3. In the System Properties window, go to the “Hardware” tab and click on “Device Installation Settings”.
4. Now select “No (your device might not work as expected)” and click on “Save Changes”.

Way 5: Disable Automatic Windows Store App Updates

The last way you can use to turn off Windows 10 updates is by disabling the Windows Store App Updates. Please note that, by disabling this, you will not get any automatic updates for your Windows apps, too.

1. Click the Windows logo key to open Start, type store in the search bar, and click “Microsoft Store”.
2. Click “…” in the top-right corner of the window and choose the “Settings” option in the drop-down menu.
3. Under “App updates”, turn off the “Update apps automatically” switch to disable automatic updates for Windows apps.

Extra Tip: Recover Lost Data from Window 10

It is possible that you may delete important files on your Windows computer, and worse still, you’ve emptied the Recycle Bin folder. Don’t worry. There are many professional data recovery tools available to help you out with data loss problems. Here we’d like to recommend MobePas Data Recovery. Using it, you can easily recover files from Windows 10 after accidentally deletion, formatting errors, emptying Recycle Bin, partition losses, OS crashes, virus attacks, etc.

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Follow the steps below to recover deleted files in Windows 10:

MobePas Data Recovery works well on Windows 11, 10, 8, 8.1, 7, Vista, XP, etc. Just download this tool to your computer and follow the guideline to complete the installation.

Step 1: Launch MobePas Data Recovery on your computer and select the location where you have lost data like Desktop, My Document, or Hard Disk drivers.

Step 2: After choosing the location, click “Scan” to begin the scanning process.

Step 3: After scanning, the program will present all the files that are found. You can preview the files and choose those you need to recover, then click “Recover” to save the files at your desired location.

Please note that you should not save the recovered files in the same drive where you deleted them before. Instead, we recommend you save them to an external drive. In this way, you can get the full data else you will lose many files.

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Conclusion

These are some of the ways how to stop the Windows 10 updates. You can surely choose the best one that suits you to turn off Windows 10 updates. Moreover, if you are so much concerned about the updates and also wondering which of these methods will work. You can surely try all of them. There is absolutely no disadvantage in trying all of these methods. In fact, it will surely turn off all the updates.