Tired of those pesky little updates bogging down your internet bandwidth? Microsoft’s decision to force updates on all Windows 10 PCs is a bit extreme for people who have limited bandwidth to spare.

In the previous editions of Windows OS, there was an option to stop your computer from automatically updating. But that option was removed by Microsoft in Windows 10.

However, there are ways you can pause or at least, delay or stop the updates you get on your PC. We’ve listed four ways using which you can pause/stop Windows 10 updates on your PC.

Note: We personally do not recommend delaying any updates that you receive. Most of these are security patches that fix loopholes and vulnerabilities in your system. You should always keep your system up to date.

Also read: How to view HDR videos on Windows 10 PC

Set your internet connection to a metered one

In this method, we set our internet connection as a metered one. This basically means that we tell windows that the internet we’re using is billed according to usage so that it cuts down on internet data expenditure. It’s kind of like your phone – only install updates over WiFi and not on mobile data.

This method, however, only works for WiFi connections as you can’t set an ethernet connection as a metered one.

Step 1: Open the windows settings menu. To do so you can either right-click on the Windows icon on the left side of the taskbar or press Windows key + i

Step 2: Click on Network & Internet

Step 3:  Click on WiFi

Step 4: Click on the WiFi network you’re connected to

Step 5: Scroll down and slide the ‘Set as Metered Connection’ Slider

And that’s it. Windows now will not install any updates unless you either connect to a different network which is not metered or to an ethernet connection.

Manually turn off windows updates

If you’re running the latest build of Windows 10, which is version 1803 according to what my Windows installation is telling me, there’s an option t0 turn off the updates altogether.

Step 1: Open the windows settings menu. To do so you can either right-click on the Windows icon on the left side of the taskbar or press Windows key + i

Step 2: Click on Update and Security

Step 3:  Click on Advanced options

Step 4:  Slide the Automatically install updates slider to off.

There’s outrage over the internet over whether this really works or not. Some people have reported that their installation of Windows was still updating even after turning the slider off. Some people have reported that their Windows stopped updating after it.

All in all, you’ll have to try it out on your own to see if it works for you.

Also read: How to link your iPhone or Android to Windows 10

Use the command prompt to pause Windows updates

If you really wanna get rid of Windows Updates, here a rock solid method to do so

Step 1: Press Windows key + R. Then enter CMD and press Enter

Step 2: Type ‘net stop wuauserv’ then press enter(without the quotes)

Step 3: Type ‘net stop bits’ then press enter

Step 4: Type ‘net stop dosvc’ then press enter

And windows updates will no longer bother you. You can now close the command prompt.

Should you want to revert these changes, here’s how –

Step 1: Press Windows key + R. Then enter CMD and press Enter

Step 2: Type ‘net start wuauserv’ then press enter(without the quotes)

Step 3: Type ‘net start bits’ then press enter

Step 4: Type ‘net start dosvc’ then press enter

Pausing Windows Updates for a particular period of time

( Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise only)

At present we use Windows 10 Home and hence won’t be able to provide screenshots for this particular method. Apologies for that.

Step 1: Open the windows settings menu. To do so you can either right-click on the Windows icon on the left side of the taskbar or press Windows key + i

Step 2: Click on Update and Security

Step 3:  Click on Advanced options

Step 4: Turn on Pause updates

Note that if you unpause updates in the future, you’ll have to install all the pending updates since the time you paused them.

There you go. Windows Updates are no longer killing your internet bandwidth. However, as we mentioned above, it is strongly recommended that you don’t postpone any of the updates that are sent your way.

But then always updating Windows as soon as it comes in can have a downside too, like this instance where a Windows 10 update wiped off user data.

Also read: How to run Windows 95 on Mac, Windows or Linux