Feature update to Windows 10, version 20H2 not downloading.

Ghot said:

svchost.exe is the program that is responsible for ALL your "Services".
It's probably the hardest working MS program in Windows.

Look in Task Manager.. scroll down... see how many Service Host's there are.

There are many Service Hosts (each with a different subname after the colon) listed, but only one specifically called "Service Host: Network Service", and that one is using up almost all of my bandwidth (which it usually only does if it's downloading a Windows Update, which Windows Update claims is not happening).

It seems as if Windows Update is secretly downloading an update in the background without telling me. This is making it impossible to download the ISO, as there's virtually no bandwidth left for it.

Ghot said:

What you are downloading is.... Windows 10, the whole operating system..

Yes, but not through Service Host: Network Service. Something else (I still don't know what) is downloading through Service Host: Network Service, and was throttling my bandwidth and making it so that the ISO was downloading at about 10 kbps. Service Host: Network Service shouldn't be downloading anything, as it is not what's downloading the ISO, and Windows Update claims that there are no updates downloading.

The good news is that whatever Service Host: Network Service is downloading has slowed down to a reasonable bitrate most of the time, so the ISO is now able to download at a reasonable speed (around 130 kbps on average) most of the time, although Service Host: Network Service still occasionally spikes and throttles the ISO download (but now it's just occasional spikes rather than a constant thing).

To be clear, I first tried using the Media Creation Tool to download the ISO, and when that was being throttled too badly by whatever Service Host: Network Service is downloading, I decided to download the ISO directly from the Windows website (using one of the tutorials linked to in this thread). I have the ISO (Win10_20H2_v2_English_x64.iso) downloading through JDownloader, so I can clearly differentiate between the ISO download and whatever Service Host: Network Service is doing by looking at the network section of Task Manager. It was also being throttled for a while, but Service Host: Network Service is currently slacking off and allowing the ISO to download at a reasonable speed.

UPDATE: Service Host: Network Service is at it again, now using so much bandwidth that the ISO is downloading at only about 2 kbps. Again, Service Host: Network Service should be downloading nothing, as there are supposedly no downloads being downloaded through Windows Update. It's not a matter of the ISO being too big. It's a matter of something OTHER THAN THE ISO being downloaded through Service Host: Network Service, keeping the ISO from downloading at more than a few kilobytes per second.

hbenthow said:

It seems as if Windows Update is secretly downloading an update in the background without telling me. This is making it impossible to download the ISO, as there's virtually no bandwidth left for it.

Right-click on the Start button --> Windows PowerShell (Admin).
Run the following command to disable the Windows Update service.

SC config "wuauserv" start=disabled

After the download has finished, run the following to re-enable it.

SC config "wuauserv" start=demand

Matthew Wai said:

SC config "wuauserv" start=disabled

I got the following error when trying that:

Code:

Set-Content : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'start=disabled'.At line:1 char:1+ SC config "wuauserv" start=disabled+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Set-Content], ParameterBindingException    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetContentCommand

Service Host: Network Service is currently alternating between downloading a lot and slacking off. When it slacks off, the ISO gets to download for a while (until Service Host: Network Service starts using up the bandwidth again). So far,14.34% of the ISO has downloaded.

hbenthow said:

I got the following error when trying that:

Sorry. The command should be:

CMD /C SC config "wuauserv" start=disabled

I forgot to add the CMD part at the beginning.

Matthew Wai said:

Sorry. The command should be:
CMD /C SC config "wuauserv" start=disabled
I forgot to add the CMD part at the beginning.

I ran that and got the following success message:

PS C:\Windows\system32> CMD /C SC config "wuauserv" start=disabled[SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESSPS C:\Windows\system32>

However, that didn't fix the problem. Service Host: Network Service still intermittently uses up all the bandwidth. This doesn't usually happen (it just started within the past 10 hours or so). If it's not a Windows update, I'm not sure what Service Host: Network Service is downloading. I wish there was a way to find out.

hbenthow said:

Service Host: Network Service still intermittently uses up all the bandwidth.

Press the Windows key + R and run services.msc
Look for the service and disable it for the time being.

Ironically, "Service Host: Network Service" does not exist at my end.

Google found: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-4a09782b6d74