This brief tutorial shows students and new users how to quickly pause or stop Windows 10 updates.
Windows 10 automatically downloads updates and patches in the background, which may be a real pain for folks connected to slow or low-quality internet.
While automatically downloading Windows 10 updates in the background is good and wise, you sometimes want priority tasks or work to be completed quickly. In addition, if your Internet connection is slow, the background download services will make it slower.
Windows 10 also doesn’t make it easy to pause the background downloading of updates.
Here’s how to temporarily stop or pause Windows updates.
Open the command line terminal as administrator.
Only the administrator or members of the administrator’s group can pause or stop Windows downloads. A standard user won’t be able to stop Windows updates.
Right-click the Start button and select Command Prompt (Admin)
Run the commands below to stop the background downloading of updates
After opening the command prompt as administrator, run the following commands stop Windows updates and Background Intelligent Transfer Service
net stop wuauserv net stop bits net stop dosvc
These services will be stopped, and Windows 10 computers will be unable to download necessary updates for your computer. So you must re-enable these services as they’re very important for your Windows 10 systems.
To restart these services again, run the commands below
net start wuauserv net start bits net start dosvc
Restarting these services allows Windows to begin downloading updates again. Or restart your computer, and the services will automatically be started.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>net stop wuauserv
The Windows Update service is stopping.
The Windows Update service was stopped successfully.
C:\Windows\system32>net stop bits
The Background Intelligent Transfer Service service is stopping.
The Background Intelligent Transfer Service service was stopped successfully.
That’s it! Enjoy, and please come back!
