TAKE CONTROL

WINDOWS
SPECIAL OF WINDOWS
Its vital to keep your PC
10 UPDATE
up to date but in a way
that works for you.
Nik Rawlinson explores
how to tailor Windows
Update to your
requirements

W
indows Update has a
reputation for choosing
the worst possible time to
interrupt your work. And in Windows
10 its become far less flexible than it
used to be. In a world where threats
are both more serious and common
than they once were, its arguably
become necessary to take a hard-line
approach to security patches.

All the same, you may have good
reason to treat updates with caution.
Some users, for example, found that
autumn 2016s Anniversary Update
disabled their computers webcams.
It may make sense to wait and see
what effect a patch has on other
users machines before you roll it out
onto your own. If you like to control
exactly whats downloaded and
when its time to take control of
Windows Update.
Before we go any further, though,
we must emphasise that keeping
Windows patched and up to date is
important. It isnt hyperbole: running
an outdated operating system leaves
you vulnerable to data loss and
identity theft. Therefore, when
making any changes to Windows
default settings, you should weigh
any gains in convenience against the
potential dangers.
TheWindowsUpdateschedule
ABOVE The schedule
for updates can be
relentless its time
to take control The first step in managing Windows Update is understanding what its sending
you, and when. On a regular PC with a direct connection to the internet,
Windows 10 will download updates as soon as theyre available. Microsoft
usually rolls out a cumulative update on the second Tuesday of each month,
colloquially known as Patch Tuesday or Update Tuesday.
If a serious hazard is discovered, an out of band patch may be issued: if you
keep an eye on Microsofts Download Center (microsoft.com/en-gb/download)
you can get a head start on the masses, as such updates tend to show up there
first. You may also find details about them on the Microsoft Knowledge Base
(support.microsoft.com) or on TechNet (technet.microsoft.com).
Minor updates are issued every other month, starting in January, with major
ones coming down the line in alternate months. (The Windows Defender
malware database is an exception, and is typically updated every day.)
Windows Update uses Microsofts Background Intelligent Transfer Service
(BITS) to download updates in the background. Its designed to use your
connection only when its idle, so you shouldnt notice impact on your working
or browsing speed. Nonetheless, when theres a lot to download, Windows
Update can hit your broadband connection hard over the course of a month. If
you have a low data cap with your ISP, Update could gobble up a big proportion
of it, without you having any control of what comes down the line and when.

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Minimisingthedownloadbundle
To help reduce the load on businesses,
Windows 10 introduced a system
whereby computers on a network
fetch copies of updates from their
neighbours where possible, rather
than retrieving their own copy over
the internet. System admins running
Windows Server 2003 and later can
also deploy updates across the local
network from a central location with
Windows Server Update Service
(microsoft.com/wsus).
At home, you can configure your
PC to fetch updates from other PCs on
the internet, rather than solely from
Microsoft. This wont reduce your
bandwidth consumption, but you
may see updates arrive more quickly
when a wider range of nearby sources
is available. The trade-off is that this
allows remote users around the world
to use your upstream bandwidth to
retrieve updates from your machine
which is probably why the option is
disabled by default. To change this,
open Settings | Update & Security |
Advanced Options | Choose how
updates are delivered.
WindowsUpdate
It isnt generally possible to pick
and choose what gets downloaded
each month, but if youre using a
Professional, Enterprise or Education
edition of Windows 10, you can strip
the payload down to its basics by
postponing new features. This option
is chiefly intended to allow businesses
time to test and update applications
and training procedures, but theres
no reason why you cant do the same
on your own desktop. To apply this
setting, open Settings, go to Update &
Security and pick Advanced Options.
Tick the box next to Defer upgrades,
and new Windows features will be
held back, sometimes for months,
while security patches continue.
Its also worth noting that if you
dont get along with a particular
update, its often possible to uninstall
and roll back. Youll find the option
under Control Panel | Programs |
Programs and Features | Installed
Updates. If you leave your settings the
same, however, dont be surprised if ABOVE You can extend Windows BELOW Tricking your PC into
the exact same update comes back Update to download updates from thinking your Ethernet connection
down the line a few days later. other PCs across the internet is metered requires a Registry edit
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WINDOWS
SPECIAL

ABOVE Should an update cause
problems, you can uninstall it through
Control Panel. Make sure you have a
recent backup
BELOW The Windows Insider
programme delivers pre-release
builds of the operating system for
advanced users
Manualconfiguration
You wont find many update
options in Settings but in
Windows 10 Professional and
Enterprise, you can access
additional controls via the
Local Group Policy Editor. To
open it, launch GPEDIT.MSC from
the search box, navigate through
Computer Configuration |
Administrative Templates |
Windows Components |
Windows Update, and double-
click on the setting entitled
Configure Automatic Updates.
Select Enabled at the top of
the window and youll see
several dropdown menus
become available in the Options
window below. Choose 2.
Notify for download and notify
for install and control of
Windows Update will once
more be in your hands.
Its also a good idea to
authorise Windows to log back
in after rebooting: this allows
it to complete the installation
process in your absence, so you
wont be waiting around once
you come back to your PC.
Enable this through Settings |
Update & Security | Advanced
Options: youll be automatically
logged out once updates have
been applied, to keep your
account safe in your absence.
If youre using Windows 10
Home then your best option is to
tell Windows that youre using a
metered connection (see below).
This will halt Windows Update
until you disable the option.

Settingameteredconnection
For wireless networks, its easy
to configure your connection
as metered. Head to Settings |
Network & Internet | Wi-Fi.
Click Manage known
networks, select the network
and click Properties, then hit the
Metered connection switch.
To set a wired Ethernet
connection as metered, you
must change the Registry. Open
Registry Editor, then navigate
to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows NT\CurrentVersion\
NetworkList\DefaultMediaCost.
First, authorise yourself to
edit these Registry settings. In
the left-hand pane, right-click
DefaultMediaCost and pick
Permissions from the menu,
Enter the name of your
Windows user account in the
Enter the object name to select
box, click Check Names, click
OK to close the window, and
then OK again on the previous
dialog to return to Permissions
for DefaultMediaCost.
Now give yourself permission
to edit the Registry key you need
to tweak by clicking Users in the
Group or user names box and
ticking the box beneath Allow
on the Full Control row below.
Close the window and return to
the Registry Editor.
Finally, double-click
Ethernet in the right-hand pane
and change the setting in the
Value data box to 2 to set the
wired connection as metered.

UUP:thefutureofWindowsUpdate
While it may not be obvious,
Microsoft is currently rolling out
followed by Advanced; then, in
the new window, the Change
link beside TrustedInstaller.
stream rather than gulping huge
quantities of data once or twice a
You can download a script to
perform this action from pcpro.
link/269reg.

a major upgrade to the Windows
Update system. The Unified
Update Platform (UUP) has been
pushed to mobile devices and
PCs signed up to the Windows 10
Insider Programme, and will be
coming to the rest of us soon.
The big idea behind UUP is to
reduce the size of each update
payload by installing differential
download packages, which
contain only the changes that
have been made to the OS since
the last update. So, if you
regularly keep your machine
patched then it will, in effect, only
be sipping at the download
month. Microsoft estimates that
this will reduce the download size
of major updates by 35%.
The selecting and bundling
of the required components is
handled by Microsofts servers,
so your computer will also have
less work to do when it comes to
unpacking and installing updates,
which should yield a reduction
in battery usage too. Whether
the improvement will really be
noticeable remains to be seen,
however. Microsofts aim is to
make the switch to UUP entirely
transparent, so that it appears
nothing has changed.
EndoftheroadforolderWindows
No developer can be expected to continue supporting old releases
forever, and each version of Windows comes with a cut-off date for
support. The current timetable for Windows 10 promises mainstream
support which may include new and upgraded features through to
October 2020. After that its extended support only, which means
security updates will continue but all other development will stop. After
2025, any support you need will be at a charge. Based on Microsofts
past behaviour, we can assume that the next major update to the OS
will extend those dates, but weve no official word on that.
For Windows 8.1, mainstream support expires in January 2018 and
extended support continues until 2023. If youre running Windows 7,
youre already into extended support: security updates will end in 2020,
so you should, perhaps, start thinking about an upgrade strategy.

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 @PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO WindowsUpdate

Howtosuppressautomaticreboots
Security updates often affect key operating
system components, so Windows usually
needs to reboot when installing an update.
If youre sitting at your computer when
an update arrives, you can easily suppress
the restart until a more convenient time, but
if youve left something running such as a
Bitcoin miner or a video-rendering task
you may return to find your PC sitting at the
login screen waiting for you to enter your
credentials. Very frustrating.
You can reduce the danger of this by
setting Windows Update to install updates
only outside of your active hours. To
specify what these are, open Windows
Update Settings, click Change active hours
and set the start and end times. Sadly,
theres no option to choose specific days,
so you cant for example install updates
only at weekends.
You may therefore prefer to disable
automatic reboots altogether. This isnt
something Microsoft officially supports,
but its easy to implement by creating a
scheduled task that runs in the background
every hour and automatically cancels any
pending reboots. Heres how.

1 2
Open the Task Scheduler desktop app and create a new task by clicking Windows needs to know when to run the task: switch to the Triggers
Action | Create Task Give it a name such as Cancel auto reboot tab and click New. Tasks can be fired when certain things happen
and click the box beside Run with highest privileges to give it (such as when you log on) or to a timed schedule, as configured on the
Administrator access. We recommend hitting the Hidden checkbox, too, Begin the task menu. We want our task to run at regular intervals, so leave
so it doesnt open a command prompt window. this set to On a schedule.

3 4
Windows Update is a single-minded beast, and will continually try On the Actions tab, click New, and in the Program/script: box,
to instigate a reboot, so you need your task to launch at regular enter powershell. In the Add arguments box, type -command
intervals. Tick the box beside Repeat task every: and make sure the Disable-ScheduledTask \Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\
interval is set to 1 hour. Then change the option beside for a duration of: Reboot. Dont include the quote marks in either instance. Click OK, then OK
from 1 day to Indefinitely and click OK. again to close the Create Task dialog. Job done.

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