Enable or Disable Windows Update Automatic Updates in Windows 10  

Brink said:

Hello XenonKilla, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Correct. This would the .reg download in step 4 of Option Two in the tutorial.

Thank You for your work. It's very much appreciated!

Just a word of thanks here... I've been using Brink's registry macros for more than a year now on two Win10/Pro computers, and they continue to hold the update-download and auto-maintenance functions at bay. I do, however, keep links to these macros on my Desktop, and re-run them religiously after any Windows Updates. I would not put it past those clever Microsoft programmers to purposely build-in roadblocks against any user-base interference with the well-intentioned edicts of these purveyors of our chosen Operating System. One way I test for whether or not the choices remain in place is to open the Maintenance function under the Control Panel and manually request it to start. With the block in place, all I see is a very brief 'hourglass' circle, and nothing more happens. If the block is turned off, then the Maintenance screen lets you know that the system is starting its various cleanings, updates and Lord-knows-what-else.

I disable the Windows Update Service, then go to Scheduled Tasks and disable anything under Update Orchestrator and Windows Update. Last one (just to be on the safe side) I also disable anything about updates using O & O Windows Shutup.

My post of a few days ago, #591, gives kudos to Brink's semiautomatic reg-edit utilities. Although my trust is unerring, I did notice something odd only today that I thought I should mention. By the way, this is under Win10 Pro Build 1803.

It would appear that for those of us using MS's native Windows Defender anti-whatever program, there is no way on God's Green Earth to defeat the daily, or several-daily Windows Defender definition updates. Perhaps invoking that command that advises of a metered Internet connection might negate this, I don't know; but otherwise the updates are stealthily and silently downloaded and run against our wills or better judgement, albeit usually without ill effect. True to its nature, when I booted-up this morning, Windows Defender updated its definitions.

But also when I started up again this morning, I got a Win10 Notification that 'files are waiting to be burned to CD'. Well, I haven't done that in a long time, so I went to my E drive and, sure enough, two huge folders (bigger than several CDs!) were sitting there in limbo. These looked like duplicates of a couple of folders I have under C:/Documents, so I put them in the trash. I of course checked to confirm that the originals were still safe afterward. Now this action may or may not be part of what's going on, but I thought I'd mention it.

Next, just out of curiosity, I checked the Security and Maintenance section under Control Panel, and, wonder of wonders, today's date was given as the last time Automatic Maintenance was done. Mind you, I had that turned off, and yesterday a date going back two weeks was displayed for the last run. So something sneaked in and undid Brink's reg-edit for that function.

I also looked at O&O's ShutUp 10 control panel. There, also, one change had been made; the 'Telemetry disabled (3 of 3)' switch had been toggled to send data back to MS.

Wanting to get to the bottom of this, I went out to my lab and woke my other Win10 machine from sleep. It, too, downloaded the latest Defender definition update (1.277.662.0), but also showed a previous one (1.227.605.0) downloaded yesterday but not installed… maybe… couldn’t tell. Make note of those two numbers, though.

After letting that computer run for a while, I checked Defender, and the most recent update to the definitions had been installed. I also checked the Automatic Maintenance utility, and it was still turned off. (You just click to start it manually, and with Brink’s Registry edit, it just won’t start.) Also O&O on that computer had not been meddled-with at all. So far, all was well.

At that point I restarted the computer. Once it was up and running, I went in and took a peek. Automatic Maintenance had not only turned itself back on, but had already run. Also, O&O reported that ‘Telemetry disabled (3 of 3)’ had been reset, just like my office machine. I invoked the reg-edit shortcut again, and reset the Telemetry 3 switch in O&O. Subsequent restarts have not returned the unwanted behavior to these functions.

So evidently one or the other of those Defender definition updates, or something else that got downloaded invisibly, can interfere with user changes to the Registry. It does seem to take a system restart to make these unwanted changes, however. So there you have it, for what it’s worth.

@Brink - Does disabling Windows Update Service (Option Five) prevent one from installing a downloaded Standalone Update package?

hi
i can't understand why I have set up the update service disabled but after every reboot windows 10 re-set to manual
why?
is there a schedule that re-enable it?
i'm using the pro version , in the past i was always able to disable the w10 update disabling the windows update service
happy new year!

Happy New Year! Disabling the service is not enough. You should also disable any scheduled tasks under UpdateOrchestrator and WindowsUpdate. See my earlier post in this thread.