[Closed] Windows 10; How to stop constant updates

Why would you want to? Just let them install when you shutdown, and you are more secured against virus's etc.

Disable Windows Update?

[img] [/img]

[url= http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-disable-automatic-updates-in-windows-10-3632159/ ]http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-disable-automatic-updates-in-windows-10-3632159/[/url]

Funny innit, MS have been providing these operating systems for over 20 years now and they still can't release one without it needing "vulnerability" patches every bloody month. Keeps some of us in work I suppose.

All OS's need vulnerability patching.

[i]All OS's need vulnerability patching. [/i]

I reckon it'll be domestic appliances next:

"In 2017 Russian hackers assembled the world's biggest botnet by hacking a range of domestic appliances, heating controllers and light bulbs"

DezB - Member 
Funny innit, MS have been providing these operating systems for over 20 years now and they still can't release one without it needing "vulnerability" patches every bloody month. Keeps some of us in work I suppose.

Take a look at any daily Linux update and you'll often see many vulnerability patches.

Windows updates are pretty reliable now, however because of the change in Windows 10 to no longer technically releasing new operating system versions, combined with a more open and frequent development cycle, they are pushing out feature updates on a more frequent basis. That means in the last year you've had major updates like the November update (1511) and the Anniversary Update (1607). These are essentially like SP1 and SP2 or even Win 10.1 / 10.2, as they make substantial changes.

Personally I think they are vast improvements and everyone should welcome them as Win 10 on release was still very much beta quality.

As a developer I also welcome the push to keep everyone on the latest version where possible. Biggest headache over the last 20 years of doing Windows development is supporting luddites.

p.s. How many of you use Chrome? Do you bother about the fact it updates itself frequently? You probably never even notice (except as a developer and you realise a web site doesn't work any more then find out they've deprecated a feature and your version of Chrome was updated without you knowing 😉 )

Vulnerabilities are found by MS employees to stop hackers, right? So how come the hackers very rarely find vulnerabilities that the MS people haven't found yet (but may do in a few months)? Or are the hackers and MS working together? Or do they wait for hacks, then fix whatever's been hacked?
Why not just make the built in firewalls better?

Vulnerabilities are way more than just down to firewalls. Many of the big hacks recently have been nothing to do with Windows.

In fact Windows 10 comes in at 19th in the top 50 vulnerabilities this year https://www.cvedetails.com/top-50-products.php?year=2016

How long has it been doing it?

It won't do it constantly, it just does loads when you first get it to get it up to scratch. There was a very big one recently (anniversary update) which new PCs won't have had.

So how come the hackers very rarely find vulnerabilities that the MS people haven't found yet

They do. There's a whole community about finding these things for the goodies and figuring out when the baddies have found them and attempt to use them.

Why not just make the built in firewalls better?

Firewall only stops network connections. Some attacks use open (un-firewalled) ports to exploit network services, and the firewall can protect against those. But it doesn't stop a virus, trojan or other malware. Lots of different kinds.

Hack in progress here (2.2m of 5.5m passwords stolen so far)

[url= https://boingboing.net/2016/09/27/social-media-site-targeted-at.html ]https://boingboing.net/2016/09/27/social-media-site-targeted-at.html[/url]

again, not a windows vulnerability as such, more a configuration/design one.

PS don't disable Windows updates - they are important!

If your using a laptop that connecting via wifi connection change it to a metered connection in the network settings.

I disabled them on my Win8 PC cos everytime they installed the graphics got screwed up. No hacks or viruses or emptying of bank accounts or death or destruction of any kind since. 😛

Vulnerabilities are found by MS employees to stop hackers, right? So how come the hackers very rarely find vulnerabilities that the MS people haven't found yet (but may do in a few months)? Or are the hackers and MS working together? Or do they wait for hacks, then fix whatever's been hacked?
Why not just make the built in firewalls better?

sorry, but you really have no clue.

there's a black market for these 'holes' and our governments inadvertently fund it by buying the capabilities from these companies selling exploits. M$, Apple and AV companies are trying to stay ahead of it.

[i]sorry, but you really have no clue.[/i]

I thought I made that clear. 🙄

It's been bad with updates since the anniversary issue though but I still would never ever turn off the updates. Get people once a week to do a full restart at lunchtime rather than just switching off in the evening and that can save a lot of the pain of waiting for them to install

Vulnerabilities are found by MS employees to stop hackers, right?

Not always no. Security researchers often find them and disclose to the relevant company before making them public. Often this can mean the patch is circulated before the vulnerability is widely known about.

As above, don't disable them.

OP - is it new updates each time or one that is failing?

It's been bad with updates since the anniversary issue

I knew it was coming so I sat there and once it'd downloaded the main one I restarted and restarted until it was done.

You actually have to restart though, so I imagine if you weren't deliberately doing it like I was the updates would be hanging around for weeks making you think it was always updating when in fact it was waiting to install the same update the whole time.

is it really that inconvenient?
'install updates and shutdown', walk away.

Not downloading Windows updates seems a bad plan to me.

it is, but its also a massive PITA.

what i begrudge is them be forced - especially when i've got a deadline of some sort and had to reboot. for example, the most recent win10 "feature update" (anniversary) took 1.5 hours on my work PC.

Settings - update and security - windows update advanced settings - select notify to schedule restart.

Just in case it is rebooting automatically at random times when you don't want it to rather than applying them when you shut down.

the most recent win10 "feature update" (anniversary) took 1.5 hours on my work PC.

Your company should be using windows ltsb that doesn't get that update, poor of your IT department to let that through.

Hmm... I wasn't forced, or even nagged. Strange.

There should be a pop-up telling you it's time to update and you get now or later options

Disable Windows Update?

Don't do this. It's a really really bad idea.

Settings - update and security - windows update advanced settings - select notify to schedule restart.

Do this. I did.

Oh, and,

Unless it's changed with Windows 10 (I haven't particularly noticed either way), Windows Updates are published monthly on the second Tuesday of the month, so it shouldn't be a "constant" problem unless you're continually trying to defer installation and getting reminders. The exception to this is, erm, "exceptional" updates which are released when there's an update so critical that it can't wait for the monthly schedule. As you might guess, you probably should be installing these ASAP as there's a good reason for it.

Major rebuilds like Anniversary Edition are a bit different, they're out of band with "normal" patches. I think from memory you'll get offered these when you haven't applied any other updates for 30 days (and are actually available, ofc).

Not installing updates is why widespread infections like Conficker which had been patched months before it really took hold became such a massive problem.

You can choose to defer up[u]grades[/u] such as the Anniversary edition without affecting up[u]dates[/u] for security and critical bugs. (It's in Settings > Update & Security > Windows Updates > Advanced Options)

I have no problem with upgrades generally, but I wish they wouldn't change the interface. The way the Start menu works has changed significantly on the Anniversary Ed, and I've had to spend a while trying to explain it to my 90 year old mother and 84 year old MiL - made harder by my PC not having the upgrade yet.

Couple of interesting snippets - Microsoft have reduced their own testing teams right down; consumers are now pretty much the testers and as new features are added to Windows and other MS products new holes will be found - or worse old ones will reappear...

I reckon it'll be domestic appliances next:

"In 2017 Russian hackers assembled the world's biggest botnet by hacking a range of domestic appliances, heating controllers and light bulbs"

It already happened this week. Massive DDOS attacks over 600Gb/s and then 1,000Gb/s. No way was that a Windows OS botnet; more like the Internet of Shit - Cameras, TV's, thermostats and all the other crap people are pointlessly assinging IP addresses too.

I think it won't be long and there will need to be legislation in place to state a device has passed adequate testing to be sold as internet connected. It's not all complicated either, I think most of it is just default admin/root passwords left in place.

Microsoft have reduced their own testing teams right down;

Sauce?

Cougar - Moderator 
Oh, and,
Unless it's changed with Windows 10 (I haven't particularly noticed either way), Windows Updates are published monthly on the second Tuesday of the month

Cant say I've noticed but I like Update Tuesday as it allows time to prep for the changes coming. Saying that I have seen what I believe to be random updates from M/Soft recently which can cause issues.
The anniversary update was exactly this. I really didn't expect Sage to stop working on the machines I support and had a few issues sorting those out, more of a pain on the VM's of MAC users.

thats not a bad idea. most routers ship with settings altered..

those hacks that only target certain eastern euroepean android based smart tv's were nuts too

Your company should be using windows ltsb that doesn't get that update, poor of your IT department to let that through.

heh IT dept. we don't have one. not really.. 6 devs, few more support staff.. couple salesy/admin people thats it really!

I did install ltsb (via my MSDN developer subs) however, the anniv update is being pushed to everyone now. it had downloaded and was patiently waiting for me to reboot - before buggering up my morning 🙂

win 10 sucks balls as far as updates go. they totally break our software in multiple by removing settings during upgrade and we get the fallout.

btw as far as botnets go.. unlike a few years ago when it was rumoured the world was run out dodgy copies of XP i can say that as part of my role gives me an eye into stats of our userbase, and most are on 7 x64 or 10 x64.

x86 (32-bit) is only a 6th of the installed userbase. probably tablets or older machines.

so think microsoft really did get a lot of people onto 10 with the free 7->10 thing. i bought two refurb corporate desktops with OEM 7 licences for home and upgraded both to 10 at just the right time 🙂

Sauce?

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but I wish they wouldn't change the interface

That is a good point actually. Windows will now be continually upgraded and gradually change over time. They really ought to have a simplified interface for people who just want a few simple things, and not change that.

I really didn't expect Sage to stop working on the machines I support
...
win 10 sucks balls as far as updates go. they totally break our software in multiple by removing settings during upgrade and we get the fallout.

But of course in a corporate environment you run WSUS and test major updates before rolling them out to everyone. No?

hah yes.. but when your market is anything from companies with 5 seats who employ a local pc shop for their IT to seats with 10,000+ who take 5 years to catch up with the latest versions there's a huge spread of scenarios.

I live in an area where the broadband speed is poor, 0.8 Mbps last time I checked.
I'm going to remove windows 10 & go back to 7. My home laptop is useless on the internet with 10 installed but my work machine on 7 is fine.

Fyi security and reliability updates will be bundled into monthly cumulative updates pretty soon. That means you won't be able to uninstall individual kb's, and even if you could, next month's patch would include it. A little worrying for any business. Let's hope someone else identifies any issues and ms resolve before you do!

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askpfeplat/2016/08/30/a-bit-about-the-windows-servicing-model/

Im just going to leave this here...
[b][i]Mac[/i][/b]
🙂

I'm running the latest Windows OS on machines over ten years old. Can your Mac do that?

Now hush, adults are talking.

A little worrying for any business. Let's hope someone else identifies any issues and ms resolve before you do!

If you read the article you've linked to, you'll see there's a "Current Branch for Business" update stream which delays feature updates for four months to give you time to undergo testing.

[quote=Cougar ]
But of course in a corporate environment you run WSUS and test major updates before rolling them out to everyone. No?

Well you'd think, but the interesting thing with Sage is that until recently you had to have *ALL* the Windows updates including the optional ones installed and the machine rebooted before you could use it. Real handy when there's an update that won't apply.

[quote=Cougar ]I'm running the latest Windows OS on machines over ten years old. Can your Mac do that?
Now hush, adults are talking.

my 2007 iMac is running the latest macOS, so nearly. 9 years good enough?

My home laptop is useless on the internet with 10 installed but my work machine on 7 is fine.

Is Sage on some sort of rolling update / cloud service? Surely it can only know about updates released before itself, so once installed any future Windows updates are an irrelevance unless you update Sage itself?

(The last time I used Sage it was DOS-based...!)

DezB - Member 
I disabled them on my Win8 PC cos everytime they installed the graphics got screwed up.

An unfortunate situation of a bad driver in the updates or antique graphics card perhaps that isn't supported. MS occasionally pushes out drivers that don't play well, but usually it gets fixed (had one with early release of Win 10 where network would drop on some Dell systems. Fix was install Dell driver. A little later, MS had fixed the driver, all good again). I'd still never disable updates, just work around it and send a support issue to MS and/or your PC or graphics card manufacturer.

I believe there are ways of blocking specific updates also, plus the very latest manufacturer driver may prevent the Win update version overriding it.

Greybeard - Member 
I have no problem with upgrades generally, but I wish they wouldn't change the interface. The way the Start menu works has changed significantly on the Anniversary Ed, and I've had to spend a while trying to explain it to my 90 year old mother and 84 year old MiL - made harder by my PC not having the upgrade yet.

Problem is it's done democratically now. They spent a while quizzing insiders on the change, offering several options. I voted against some of it, but they went ahead with what we've got now. I quite like the collapsed minimal menu although some will get confused without words there (click the hamburger at the top to see them), but I don't want the list of all programs being permanently shown. Also what they've done in tablet mode for that is rubbish, although it does hide the 'all programs' list by default, but when you want it, it fills the display with small icons.

Still though, some see it as the end of the world. I just see it as evolution, and it's still functional. These changes also keep it feeling fresh, not stuck in the 90s as with the classic start menu people still cling to.

I changed to Windows 10 about three months ago and really liked it. My rather ancient laptop gained a new a new lease of life. Only problem was my printer wouldn't work but with a bit of messing about I finally got it going. However since a big update last week my printer will not work. Windows 10 has removed the driver from the laptop and nothing I do will get it working again. the Canon support site says there will be no drivers for my machine and an email from them told me the only solution was to buy a new printer, they have some good offers at the moment I was told!
Granted my printer is about eight years old but was working just as well as when it was new and I have £30 of new ink cartridges for it. My even more ancient Epson scanner wouldn't work but Epson had a new driver for it and it is now working fine. Looks like a perfectly good printer is to end up in the recycle bin.

Use the driver for a similar printer, it'll probably work.

I'm running the latest Windows OS on machines over ten years old. Can your Mac do that?

That's very unusual for a Windows machine, wasn't the stat something like 80% of Windows machines are running XP ? Macs are kept far more upto date than Windows, Apple lead the way with annual free OS updates. My 7yr old machine is happily running pretty current software and friends 10yo Mac Book Pro too. I well remember when a Windows version update cost £150 while Mac was £15-20 (both now free) and with Windows you had the risk that the new OS would be really terrible.

Regular security updates are necessary, they may be a PITA for various reasons but that should be seen as a fact of life.

Maybe MS need to work on the roll out process and make sure options/settings are preserved (I am a cynic and say those are changed for marketing / commercial reasons) but not updating is crazy

@kjcc yes had a similar experience Win 7 -> 10 with an old scanner. After 2 full days trying to get it to work it was thrown in the bin 😯 We got it to work with a third party piece of software (on free trial) but not with windows software even though it said current drivers where available. We where doing it for free for brother-in-law but the time cost had it been chargable wouod have far outweighed just buying a new piece of hardware. Crime really. 😐

my 2007 iMac is running the latest macOS, so nearly. 9 years good enough?

jamb? you're running OS X Sierra? i thought it was blocked on anything pre-2009? (or maybe you missed its release last week - only know because my manager has an '07 imac and can't install it!)

btw yes i agree updates are essential.

at home i run two windows 10 machines. 1 is my main desktop. the otehr is a video/media server/download box.

i run manjaro linux in a VM (virtualbox) on it. with it downloading into a folder on on thee host. media is shared via upnp from the vm (and samba) from the host. first time i've really messed with linux for a long time. it does updates every couple weeks. i get to take a vm snapshot before updates "just in case". update before last stopped the upnp working. but a reboot sorted. not been any hassle so far.

That's very unusual for a Windows machine

Wrong.

wasn't the stat something like 80% of Windows machines are running XP

Dunno, it's your stat. Might have been true at some point. "Running XP" and "incapable of running anything else" are two different things though.

Macs are kept far more upto date than Windows,

Wrong again. Windows has had monthly updates for the last twenty years, and Windows 10's model is now one of continual updates rather than releasing new editions. Bit like your annual updates only more frequently.

My 7yr old machine is happily running pretty current software

"Pretty current" so not the latest then?

not updating is crazy

There are exceptions, but generally I'd agree.

wasn't the stat something like 80% of Windows machines are running XP

Ah, here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems

Your 80% XP is just a smidge over 6%. That's pretty close for you. (-:

is it really that inconvenient?
'install updates and shutdown', walk away.

If only! It took an hour to install the updates when I switched my laptop on yesterday.

If only! It took an hour to install the updates when I switched my laptop on yesterday.

Your 80% XP is just a smidge over 6%. That's pretty close for you. (-:

It won't take an hour every time. At least it shouldn't.

As said, there was a huge update recently which took multiple restarts to finish - at least two big ones for me.

Crime really.

Yes, but in other ways unavoidable. Most of Windows' negative reputation comes from their original attempts to make the new OSes backwardly compatible which caused it to be unreliable and shite. Remember Windows 98?

You could equally blame the scanner manufacturer for not producing up-to-date drivers.

Win10 updates are a damn nuisance, my laptop always seemed to be updating & rebooting at inopportune moments. If you are on wifi, then you can set it to a metered connection, this will stop automatic updates until you choose to install them.

Win10 updates are a damn nuisance, my laptop always seemed to be updating & rebooting at inopportune moments.

It's been said on the thread that you can turn off the automatic reboots (although I don't seem to be able to find that setting). You can however schedule it to reboot in the middle of the night too.

Apple lead the way with annual free OS updates.

According to the OP, Microsoft are besting that with constant free updates.

Never been kicked off to update, you must have not used the right settings when you initially intalled it. The only laptop that took about an hour to update (and even then it probably wasnt that long) is my 10 year old Inspiron 9300 with its weedy x86 processor and paltry 2GB RAM. I'd say if its taking that long on a modern machine there is a hardware fault somewhere.

Obselescence is a fact of life, the fact that Win10 will run on such ancient hardware at all is remarkable, never mind that it often runs better than its predecessors.

Tried Win 7 driver and quite a few drivers for a variety of printers similar to mine but no luck. Do I stay with Canon or try another make?
Important that it will do a decent photograph print up to A4.

is it really that inconvenient?
'install updates and shutdown', walk away.

Yesterday's rebooted, paused a long time, and then went with:

"This app is no longer available" ... " and had deleted one of the programs I use daily. According to the developers the app isn't incompatible with Window 10 and can safely be reinstalled, but saved data is gone forever.

It also turned back on a couple of the "send all my browsing history to Microsoft" options.

And installed a whole load of extra apps I don't want.

And uninstalled .Net 3.5 (which was being used by VMWare).

Might have to be a Mac next time unless Adobe start supporting Photoshop and Premier on Linux. Or just stick with Windows 7.

I think MS have a little way to go in managing this continuous updates thing so that it doesn't piss people off.

the tueday updates are one thing... its the "big" update thats basically a O/S upgrade which screws things over.. caused us no end of hassle business wise (with out product) due to them either blocking or removing settings.

Win 10 tips -

Go into Windows Update settings and set active hours which will prevent it from auto restarting on major updates during those hours.

There is also an option to set a custom restart time if a restart is pending and you want to set it to a specific time.

For some Windows versions, go to Advanced Options and select "Defer feature updates". This will defer major updates like the Anniversary Update and let you choose when to install it. You still get security patches on the existing version. This only applies to Pro, Enterprise and Educational versions. Basically corporates and academia where such things may be especially annoying while trying to do work. Though they should really have managed updates on their systems.

On a wifi network where you don't want it to be downloading updates, e.g. public network, metered network, limited bandwidth - then set your network to 'metered'.

If you have a desktop, stick it in sleep* rather than shutdown. This will allow it to do updates at a time when you're not using it.

* Win 10 uses a hybrid sleep mode (as 8.1 does) which hibernates the core OS and sticks the PC in sleep mode which most modern PCs will power down everything to bare minimum and essentially appears to be off, but it can wake itself to do updates. It also makes it virtually an instant on.

Cougar - Moderator
I'm running the latest Windows OS on machines over ten years old. Can your Mac do that?

Now hush, adults are talking.

Haha!! 😆

May be of interest,

http://www.howtogeek.com/273824/windows-10-without-the-cruft-windows-10-ltsb-explained/

[img] [/img]

Can any one identify the symbol circled in the executable.

I can only find C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost

Svchost is a "wrapper" for other services. rather than a service in itself.

What you need to do there is leave it alone.