With Windows 10, Microsoft made it mandatory for you stay up to date with the software installed on your system. It was hard to digest as you couldn’t do much to avoid it.
Once you are connected to the internet, the system automatically keeps on searching for new updates and install them without any user intervention.
This was not the case with Windows 7/8/8.1 , user was very much in control about when and how to download/install the updates.
He/she could fine tune it to his/her taste.
Now that things have changed, we have to find other ways of dealing with it.
In our first method, we will look into how windows treats your internet connection. Starting with Windows 8.1, we already have a setting called “Set as metered connection” which makes windows think limited/fixed data connection.
- Open Settings (Win + I)
- Go to Network & Internet
- Next, choose Wi-Fi and click on the network you are connected to.
- On the next screen, Toggle “Set as Metered Connection” switch to On
Please note this works only when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.
For our second method we will simply look at hiding the available updates.
For this we will use an official Microsoft tool known as wushowhide (Windows Update Show/Hide).
This tool makes it very easy to search for, and hide/show hidden updates or drivers.
Download and run the tool.
Follow the visual instructions in the pictures below.
Click on Next
Click on Hide updates to check the results.
On this screen, you can select the updates which you find appropriate and hit Next button.
This will defer the updates and hide them.
Please note, it also gives you results for any drivers installed on the system. So, let us say you don’t want to install the latest Bluetooth driver version because it crashes, you can simply select the driver from the list and hide it. Bingo!
Using Group Policy Editor (on Windows 10 Pro)
- Open Run window (Win + R) and type “gpedit.msc” to bring up the group policy editor. Open it.
- Click on Computer Configuration and select “Administrative Templates“.
- Now click on All Settings and scroll down. On the right side, search for Configure Automatic Updates and double click on it to select it.
- On the next screen, set it to Enabled and choose “Notify for download and notify for install” under configure automatic updating.
Hit Apply and Ok to close the window.
Close the Policy editor and you are done!
That is all. Give them a try and let us know what you think.
