Windows : How to pause Windows 10 updates download

By | November 29, 2017

Since Windows 10, Microsoft made it harder for users to disable automatic updates and downloads. When triggered automatically, there is no function on the user interface to stop them, unfortunately.

If you are running with the default settings, you might at some point end up working on your computer and noticed that your bandwidth was capped by a large Windows Update download, affecting your work.

To stop them and free up your system immediately, simply do the following procedure :

1. Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell with administrative privileges (you may right click on the Windows button to find it easily)

NOTICE : The following commands may prevent or interrupt updates from being installed, if Windows Update is actually installing, not downloading. I recommend to use them only to interrupt download, as interrupting installation could cause an issue. You can see by opening the update pane what is actually being done.

2. Execute the following commands :

net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
net stop dosvc

Windows Update should have stopped downloading now. These services will restart automatically if you reboot your computer.

If you want to restart them manually rather than reboot, execute the following commands :

net start wuauserv
net start bits
net start dosvc