Disable Automatic Windows 10 Updates

We have  option to turn off Automatic Updates altogether. All we need to do is stop the Windows Update service and make sure that it won’t start again. I recommend to first check if updates are currently downloaded; if so, wait until all updates are installed. Then, type “services” in the Windows 10 search box and click View Local Services.

Windows Update service

Scroll down to Windows Update and double-click the service. Set the startup type to Disabled. If the service is already running, click Stop. After the service has stopped, click OK.

Disable Windows Update service

If you now click Check for Updates in the Windows Update app, you should see a reassuring error message:

Error message: There were some problems installing updates

Yup, that is all we wanted: “some problems installing updates.”

If you want to later enable Automatic Updates again, you have to first set the startup type of the Windows Update service to Manual and then start the service.

If you plan to switch Automatic Updates on and off frequently, you can do so with this tiny PowerShell script, which you have to run with administrator privileges:

1 2	stop-service wuauserv set-service wuauserv –startup disabled

If you want to verify if the service is really disabled, you need the Get-WMIObject cmdlet:

1	get-wmiobject win32_service –filter "name='wuauserv'"

Stop Windows Update service with PowerShell

Amazingly, the Get-Service cmdlet in PowerShell 5 still doesn’t support reading the startup type.

To enable Windows Update, you need these commands:

1 2	set-service wuauserv –startup manual start-service wuauserv

Start Windows Update service with PowerShell

Please let me know if you know of another way to deactivate Automatic Updates in Windows 10.