Microsoft decided to remove the automatic updates settings from the Control Panel in Windows 10 in an attempt to force all the updates on the users as they won’t be able to disable automatic updates anymore. This policy of forcing the updates on everyone could be helpful in keeping Windows always up-to-date with all the latest patches, but it is not so great for the people who have limited bandwidth internet connections or have very expensive data connections. For example, I use Verizon 3G data connection on my Windows 10 notebook computer for casual browsing and the latest Windows update, which is nearly 350 MB in size, has really quadrupled my monthly mobile bill overnight.
A much more practical approach for me is to disable the automatic updates and enable them once every month when I am using high speed internet through WiFi at home or somewhere in the city. This would keep my internet cost to the minimum and at the same time I will get all the Windows updates as I should. So if you want to disable the automatic updates in Windows 10, here is how you can do it:
- Press Windows logo key+R key combination to bring up the Run dialog.
- In the Run dialog, type services.msc and press Enter. This will open the Services management window.
- Scroll down and locate the Windows Update service from the list of services, select it and then click on the small stop button in the toolbar. You can also right-click on this service and choose Stop from the menu. This should stop the Windows Update service on your PC.
- Double-click on the Windows Update service to open its properties. In the properties window, choose Disabled as the startup type and click on the OK button.
- Now Windows will not download and install any automatic updates. Later when you want to enable the automatic updates, just change the startup type to Automatic in the step 4 above and restart your PC.
You can disable automatic updates in Windows 10 by disabling the related service, but make sure that you enable it once again when you are ready to install the updates. This method should be used only for temporarily disabling the Windows updates when you really do not want to install the updates for one reason or another.