Mysterious giant svchost.exe downloads, not going to Updates?

I have Windows 10 Home Edition Version 1809. I'm trying to download and install "Feature update to Windows 10, version 1909."

As usual, most of my svchost.exe bandwidth is disappearing into thin air. Last night when I attempted to do this update on my very, very slow connection, I woke up to find that svchost.exe had downloaded 2.2 GB, but when I checked Window Update Activity monitor I found it showed only .2 GB (1/10th) had been downloaded from Microsoft towards the update.

I downloaded wushowhide and even with all updates hidden (theoretically not downloading), svchost.exe is still often using up my bandwidth.

In the past, I've taken my desktop PC to the library for its fast connection doing huge Feature Updates, but that's not an option now.

I've run various virus programs. I've addressed most large update problems by going to the Windows Update Catalog and downloading them with my browser, but apparently Feature Updates aren't found there?

I also have my fully updated Windows 10 laptop on the same private local network, allowing shared updates, but that's doing nothing.

For browsing, I'm getting by with NetBalancer to address my svchost.exe issue, but that doesn't help me with the wasted bandwidth during updates.

jamis said:

I guess I don’t understand this issue. My system has 85 svchost processes running with no network activity (and almost no CPU activity). Even svchost.exe is not doing much. Are you saying the svchost processes are consuming your internet bandwidth just during the WU activity? I honestly don’t recall seeing svchost processes running that much during WU. Guess I’ll look closer during the next update, which I’ll be doing in late May. What is the download speed of your internet connection? Sorry

Thanks for the reply jamis.

Usually svchost.exe is not using up much, if any, bandwidth.

During updates, though, it's using up all my bandwidth but only 75-90% is being applied to the update. (see above.)

Even with my crazy slow connection, about 40 kb/s, I should be able to do huge updates if I'm willing for it to take a half day, or even a full day. But the way it is, it's virtually impossible to do huge updates.