I have a machine that I use for performance tasks, such as heavy-duty video encoding, and it doesn't really hold *any* sensitive information.

I have read about the Spectre and Meltdown patches damaging performance generally, as well as (in some cases) making machines unusable. I have already had experience of having to roll the Creator's Update back after it broke some functionality I was using.

I am aware that I can disable updates using the group policy editor on the Pro version of Windows, but I only have the Home version installed on that box. Is there any way of disabling updates on a Windows 10 box. I would rather not take the performance hit, ongoing risk of stuff breaking, and the general annoyance at this point. So, does anyone know how to do this and, if so, how do you do it?

Ideally I don't want to have to spring the extra to upgrade Windows to the Pro version so that I can disable updates using the group policy editor, but I guess I will have to do so if there is no other way. I also don't want to have to block all the update IPs at the router, as that would disable updates on my other box and the Wife's laptop, both of which I do want to keep updated.

To stop this going down a side-alley, I want to be clear I'm also not looking for stern homilies about why I should leave updates enabled and why/how they protect me. I'm aware of that and the risks involved in disabling them.