New
#1
How can I stop Windows 10 Pro from using up all my bandwidth randomly?
Every once in a while since the Anniversary Update, Windows 10 decides it's time to download, well, I don't know what. I'm on a mobile connection, so not only makes this the internet completely unusable (sites will barely load, videos not at all, online gaming - forget it), it also costs me a fortune if I don't notice it. It usually takes like 30-60 minutes, where the only thing I can do is disable the ethernet connection / shut the computer down, because the process that's doing the downloading is svchost.exe, so there's absolutely no way to cancel it any other way. And not only that, if I start the computer or enable the connection again, the downloading just re-starts. So essentially the system cannot be used until the weekend when I have a non-metered connection, and I have to switch to Debian during that time. WTF, Microsoft?
Now, just to be clear, I understand that Microsoft made the Home versions of Windows not usable because you cannot disable automatic updates. But I'm not running a home version of Windows, I'm running Pro. I have automatic updates disabled completely in the group policy editor, and that worked completely fine for me before the Anniversary Update. Every weekend I'd check for available updates and that's it. I also can't make Windows understand that I'm on a metered connection because I'm connected to a mobile router through ethernet. (Who thought that'd be a good idea?)
So, is there any way to solve this, i.e. stop Windows downloading huge amounts of data randomly, or do I have to switch to Linux completely? Screenshot in case anyone wants to see: https://i.imgur.com/CESPyHs.png