How to disable automatic updates on Windows 10 Home Edition
Windows 10 automatic updates are not only annoying, most importantly they decrease your computer's performance so unless you disable updates you will certainly have to buy another computer in 3-5 years. Without updating the system software your computer will perform decently for a much longer time.
Microsoft has made it especially hard for users of Windows 10 Home Edition to stop automatic updates.
I tried stopping and disabling the Windows Update service and it would get re-enabled automatically sooner or later. I followed an article showing how to install Group Policy Editor and disable automatic updates through this tool and it did not work either.
Finally I've found a solution which worked for me (Windows 10 Home Edition, tested in versions 1803 and 1903): delete the Windows Update Service and then disable the Windows Update Medic Service.
To accomplish this:
- start cmd.exe as an administrator
- type and run: sc delete wuauserv
This will delete the Windows Update service so it will no longer appear in the list of Services. Checking for Updates will now fail and automatic updates will no longer be installed.
But this is not enough, when your computer is running and online for a while, the Windows Update Medic Service will restore the Windows Update Service which was just deleted and updates will resume.
To stop updates permanently we need to disable the Windows Update Medic Service. Unfortunately this is not possible from the Services settings. The option to 'Disable' is disabled. We need to use the Registry Editor to disable the Medic Service.
Start Registry Editor regedit.exe
Navigate to:
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WaaSMedicSvc
At first I tried changing the value of 'Start' attribute to 4. This does the trick that Medic Service appears as Disabled in the list of services. Unfortunately after several days the startup type reverted to Manual (and the value of Start attribute changed to 3). Microsoft tries really hard to make sure the updates are enabled.
As my next step I tried to delete the Start attribute from the registry. This removed the Medic Service from the list of services and so far it looks like Windows Updates are no longer active.
If anything changes I will post it here.
Microsoft has made it especially hard for users of Windows 10 Home Edition to stop automatic updates.
I tried stopping and disabling the Windows Update service and it would get re-enabled automatically sooner or later. I followed an article showing how to install Group Policy Editor and disable automatic updates through this tool and it did not work either.
Finally I've found a solution which worked for me (Windows 10 Home Edition, tested in versions 1803 and 1903): delete the Windows Update Service and then disable the Windows Update Medic Service.
To accomplish this:
- start cmd.exe as an administrator
- type and run: sc delete wuauserv
This will delete the Windows Update service so it will no longer appear in the list of Services. Checking for Updates will now fail and automatic updates will no longer be installed.
But this is not enough, when your computer is running and online for a while, the Windows Update Medic Service will restore the Windows Update Service which was just deleted and updates will resume.
To stop updates permanently we need to disable the Windows Update Medic Service. Unfortunately this is not possible from the Services settings. The option to 'Disable' is disabled. We need to use the Registry Editor to disable the Medic Service.
Start Registry Editor regedit.exe
Navigate to:
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WaaSMedicSvc
At first I tried changing the value of 'Start' attribute to 4. This does the trick that Medic Service appears as Disabled in the list of services. Unfortunately after several days the startup type reverted to Manual (and the value of Start attribute changed to 3). Microsoft tries really hard to make sure the updates are enabled.
As my next step I tried to delete the Start attribute from the registry. This removed the Medic Service from the list of services and so far it looks like Windows Updates are no longer active.
If anything changes I will post it here.
I am seriously considering doing this. I have been fucked over so many times by Windows Update, and I am getting really annoyed and furious at it. Just today, I was forced to download and install updates. The updates caused my computer to have huge difficulties launching properly. I ran into the blue screen three times in a row cause it could not load Windows. Whats worse though was finally being able to launch Windows, trying to launch GTA5, and discovering that the game could not load its files. The most recent Windows update had pretty much caused GTA5 to not be compatible with Windows 10, literally going as far as to give my an error message saying "this program are not compatible with your current version of Windows". Okay, no big deal, I've experienced this thing before, usually it is easily solved by simply launching GTA5's own repair tool. But to my surprise, and mildly speaking horror, when I booted up the repair tool, it commenced installing the game from ground. Which, in case you have not tried to install this game from the discs like I do, thats 6game discs to chew through, and it can easily take more than 5hours to complete. 5hours later the repair tool was finally done, but guess what, now I got over 50GB worth of updates which the game also have to update and repair. Which will take me another hour or two.
ReplyDeleteBut okay, thats not the biggest deal, I got other games, which I can keep myself occupied with in the meantime. But it turns out, the Windows update not only caused GTA5 to become "incompatible", this also applied to all my other games. Both Diablo 3, Minecraft, and World of Warcraft, were all incompatible with the newest patch, and they are all games that are 40GB+ at the very least in size, Excluding Minecraft which lets be honest was trivial to reinstall. Whats worse is that some of the games I have, like ANNO2070, does not have any online install files as I only own them on a physical copy, meaning I cannot reinstall them for some time until I get my stuff packed out, as I just recently moved into a new house.
To top all of this off, it has not been even 2weeks since I got my computer back from repairs, due to this exact issue, with the computer being unable to load any files from its harddrives. So Microsoft basically just voided the repairs. Bullshit if you ask me.
So yeah, as you can probably tell, I am not too happy, and I am seriously considering committing endgame once and for all on Windows Update, cause I am tired of having my game sessions slowed down or even crashed altogether because of an update.
Just posting a second comment in order to be able to enable notifications
DeleteThank you for sharing. Updating Windows should not be forced upon us since it can cause incompatibilities with existing software and also slows down the hardware. Microsoft does not own our PCs, we do. But the tech giant appears to be ignorant of this fact.
DeleteI agree with you on that, and I have had so many discussions with Microsoft about this ever since I was forced over to Windows 10 3years ago. It feels at times like these companies, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, etc, are actively at war with their consumers, and its a scary scenario. And I am very aware that I am one of the lucky ones, because I live in a country where our government even bothers to care about how these companies are undermining our rights. For me personally, this is not the first time I experience these issues with Windows going ballistic because of an update. Last time it was my graphic cards that stopped working altogether after I upgraded my computer. It was one of those major updates for Windows 8, and I foolishly agreed to updating the system, because of all the fancy new features they promised would be made available, but the new Windows 8 just completely committed endgame. After much arguing and threatening Microsoft with opening a legal dispute, they finally agreed to have my computer returned, and replaced with a brand new one, which is the one I have now. That was three years ago, and now I am in a similar situation again.
DeleteWhat infuriates me the most though, is the very fact that Microsoft and all those other major tech companies cannot care less about their consumers. And even being petty enough to refuse to defend themselves during legal disputes, because they now the only way for a consumer to win such a case, would be for them to take the techs to our courts, and it can take weeks, months, if not even a year, before such a case is processed. And my country have some of the strongest laws when it comes to consumers, and there are many companies who have felt the wrath of both the courts, and the dedicated consumer council, which is a separate governmental department, whose sole purpose it is to keep these and all other companies in check. The most infamous ruling that has come in recent years, happened around the time with Apple coming forward and admitting that they were purposely slowing down older devices. Apple claimed it was because of the batteries on older iPhones being too weak to keep up with the new updates, but our courts were not satisfied with this excuse, and ruled that all Apple iPhones were to be permanently boosted back to their normal speed, and that Apple were to cover all expenses consumers may suffer. Apple did indeed try to fool their costumers into paying to have their phones boosted, but this was swiftly crushed.
But as far as Windows goes. I have decided for the time being to just use the easiest solution to the problem, which is to purposefully fill up my C-disk, which will disable Windows Update's ability to download any further updates. I am currently looking into buy myself a brand new PC, because I want a custom made one, and if that were to happen, I will probably permanently disable Windows Update, using the instructions above here.
Do yourself a service and install Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC. You can find it on the MyDigitalLife forum. The only reason not to install it is if you need Windows Mixed Reality to work as it's incompatible with LTSC. If you need the Windows Store to work you will need to install it manually. Other than that, you will be able to defer updates indefinitely and has the side benefit of not coming with a load of bloatware that normal versions of Windows come with. I've been using it since 2016 for gaming and I have not run into a single issue.
DeleteI tried it all and found a simple free and safe app : stopwindows10setup.exe just 1 click and Win10 updates are disable and I can enable again with just 1 click
ReplyDeletewill this work? are you sure it wont crash (the os)?
ReplyDeleteUsed this method to get rid of my Windows Update a couple of months ago. It still runs like a charm. The only downside is that you won't be able to gain access to new features by Microsoft that requires an update to be installed.
DeleteThanks for the guidelines.
ReplyDeleteIn certain cases the update service is still needed, so it is not handy to remove it completely.
I would go for the option to disable it, and make the medic service disappear.
What is your email address; I will send $$ by Paypal since I HATE windows updates.
ReplyDeleteNot working, the Start attribute reappears with value 3 after being deleted few days later.
ReplyDeleteHow do you delete the Start attribute from the registry?
ReplyDeleteNevermind I got it
Delete