Windows 10 update - massive band width usage

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PhilANZ

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#204302 26-Sep-2016 11:39

Wondered if there was anything else we should be doing. We had two massive spikes in data usage recently. Usually we use less than 20Gb per month (fibre's hopefully coming as a Christmas present - guys on the street laying it now). The 20Gb is general usage, with biggest usage being Skype (when we use video for long sessions it can push our daily usage over 1Gb) and to a lesser degree TeamViewer (with clients). Also DropBox for the odd file but usually less than 100Mb each.

On 23rd we used nearly 5Gb, and on 25th 4Gb. Having been bitten before with Windows 10 chewing up bandwidth, we have Glasswire on our laptops, so can see it was my wife's machine that used this - and it was from MS. I assume the duplication of bandwidth was due to the first attempt failing - it took some time both times for the updates to install. Why it had to download twice is beyond me.

Given the amazing size of the download, I've enabled the option to update from other machines on our network - but that wasn't on at the time so may not work when it tries to update my system.

I hate my system doing things I have no idea about - not that I have much understanding of technical stuff anyway. So if anyone has any suggestions that might further reduce our bandwidth use - or at least understand it, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

Lias

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#1640567 26-Sep-2016 11:49

Probably the Anniversary Update or something.

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PhilANZ

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#1640590 26-Sep-2016 12:30

That's fine - but the fact that these things are now hidden so we don't know what 's in them - nor have any control over them - is worrying - and given our finances very annoying. I know I'm in the minority - I never had automatic updates on - and on rare occasions updates I deemed as having a negative impact I never applied. Now MS just wants us to trust them.

Given the tricks they used back in the day, I have litlle faith in them - or anyone who gets a taste of power. One of the big things they offer is the freedom to work they way I like. For example I installed the classic start menu in Windows 7 - so when 8 (and now 10) came along, I didn't have to accommodate the "improved" front end. I could just do my work as I always had. I like simple. A tool like that is much better for me - who in the early days much preferred DOS over Mac's.

timmmay

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#1640593 26-Sep-2016 12:32

You can disable updates on some versions of Windows.

gzt

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#1640608 26-Sep-2016 12:50

If you have pro there is a checkbox in updates, advanced, defer feature upgrades. That is the best Microsoft offer.

Imho it's an offer worth taking.

Delaying feature upgrades gives Microsoft a chance to fix any issues encountered by their ~~go live testers~~ valued customers before it gets to your machine. ; ).

PhilANZ

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1640611 26-Sep-2016 12:51

Is Pro one of these? And even if we could, is there an equivalent to the old tool that let us read about the windows updates and see which to apply?

Rikkitic

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#1640616 26-Sep-2016 13:00

PhilANZ:

I hate my system doing things I have no idea about - not that I have much understanding of technical stuff anyway. So if anyone has any suggestions that might further reduce our bandwidth use - or at least understand it, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

You are not the only one. I keep the Windows update service turned off, which solves all the problems, except the Defender nags but even those have become less intrusive since Anniversary. Every now and then, when I think about it and am in the mood, and it suits MY schedule rather than Microsoft's, I briefly turn the update service back on and manually do the updates I think are useful to me.

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Hammerer

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#1640629 26-Sep-2016 13:25

I've modified a registry key to convert my internet connections to metered so updates are not downloaded automatically:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...337fc18?auth=1

http://www.howtogeek.com/262477/how-...dows-8-and-10/

I like that I now get asked about downloading updates to Microsoft Office too. An unintended side effect is that Outlook defaults to offline mode so I now have to manually enable online syncing whenever I start Outlook. But I guess that there is a hack to get around this too.

P.S. As an aside, it is interesting to find someone using GlassWire to see what is happening on their computers. @PhilANZ, are you using the free version or have you bought it.

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jnimmo

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#1640635 26-Sep-2016 13:33

You don't have the option on which will share your updates with other people on the internet by any chance? (I think this is on by default)

I see you know where those options are so I suspect you've already checked that one!

PhilANZ

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1640638 26-Sep-2016 13:36

I already turned that off. I have now turned on the sharing with other machines locally (i.e.my wife's) but not sure that will help since we use peer to peer only.

skewt

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#1640645 26-Sep-2016 13:43

Does anyone know the correct hosts/IPs to block in a router (e.g Mikrotik) to stop windows 10 updates?

PhilANZ

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#1640743 26-Sep-2016 14:55

I had always thought when I'm connected with cables (which we do in the office - every bit of extra speed is precious to me) it doesn't use the metering limitation. that's useful to know. And the Outlook issues isn't a factor - have never used Outlook.

As far as Glasswire is concerned, it's the free version. Only came across it when trying to see what we were using compared with the total. Did you know our daughter (and her generation) can use as much bandwidth in a fortnight the two of us use in a month? But we only use it at the high level - even there we struggle to work out the finer points.

Lias

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#1640848 26-Sep-2016 17:52

Windows 10 is designed for an always on, always connected, constantly updating world pretty much. If you weren't wanting that, perhaps shouldn't have upgraded. Users having control of updates hasn't worked very well in the past, so now they have (and rightly so) taken it away from users.

1101

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#1641157 27-Sep-2016 11:14

Lias:

Windows 10 is designed for an always on, always connected, constantly updating world pretty much. If you weren't wanting that, perhaps shouldn't have upgraded. Users having control of updates hasn't worked very well in the past, so now they have (and rightly so) taken it away from users.

Mostly true. Win10 update compulsion was widely known before most upgraded.
But, many were tricked (yes tricked) into doing the 10 upgrade.

Some control of Winupdates is needed.
Older programs that wont run after an update (that happens), hardware that wont work after an update (that happens)
Buggy updates that cause serious issues on many machines (has happened, many times)

Used to be , I would recommend to wait a month to see if the updates had known issues.
Would turning off the windowsupdate service have the desired effect ? Then turn it back on when you want to do updates ?

PhilANZ

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#1641199 27-Sep-2016 11:55

We've just spent late last night and most of today trying to get my wife's machine going again. After a failed and then "successful" attempt to install the new fix, we lost the machine completely late last night. Still don't know what was wrong. We tried each of the recovery options it gave, starting with those that sounded less damaging. We've just got it going - back three versions / updates ago - so again face the likelihood we'll lose yet more time when we go through this saga again.

I used to hate MS - Windows 7 changed my perception. Windows 8 dented my new-found faith. Windows 10 had restored it - I am generally impressed (not an easy thing to do). My biggest issue until now is no longer being able to play Civilisation IV - and as my focus is on work, that's insignificant. We can't afford this sort of lost time - our finances have been destroyed, not by MS but by a decade of health issues following on the heels of a sad business situation last century. Right now MS is rapidly resuming a dark empire image.