Win10 over-rode my settings to prevent Updates

[AZgl1800]

Interesting Win10 experience on preventing Updates.

This is my daughter's Win10 Acer laptop, new as of last September.
it came with Win10 natcherly..... and she is not happy with that.

a few weeks ago, I followed this page to edit the Registry
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop ... windows-10



Fast Forward to today:
Win10 over-rode those settings and downloaded a passle of updates, requesting that Cyndi chose Update/Restart....


well, good ole me, just up and deleted the entire ~/download/updates folder, poof!

So now, I jump to the Registry again and modify the new command 'AU' for Automatic Updates and set it to never '01'


I made a mistake the first time, and entered '02'
today, I changed that to just the single digit '1'


Group Policy Editor is not available on home editions.
so we have to use the Registry instead.

some of this page works, most of it don't

https://superuser.com/questions/1030085 ... ng-updates


I created a text document named Shutdown, and in it gave instructions to Cyndi to:

Windows Key R type cmd <enter>

type shutdown /p

and down she blows, like right now!!!!!!!

this is a trick I use on my Win7 desktop when I want it to shutdown "right now" because some damn application has hung up.

works like a champ, and has never caused me any problems.

on Win7, you can click on the .BAT file and it goes down.
on Win10 you must copy or type the word 'shutdown /p'



it will not allow you to run a file as an Administrator.... crap!!!

Now, more interesting things happen.....


even though, I had deleted the updates folder, when it restarted, it insisted on Updating the System..... took about a minute, then it rebooted again, and was up in 10 seconds. it must have stored some minor updates in a folder I don't know about... the Acer has a ( SSD ) so it is fast with a 2.3gHz cpu and 8gB RAM


shut it down 3 more times, and that did not occur again.
now we wait, to see if the new modifications prevent the Updates from happening.


IIRC, I read somewhere, that MicroSoft has code that will over-ride our registry settings and force updates anyway.... wondering if that is what happened, or was it because I used the wrong setting for AU ?

[DAMIEN1307]

the hack your using will not work and will automatically revert itself if her win 10 is the "home" edition...can only stop them if pro, edu, or enterprise versions of win 10...you cannot stop home edition updates in win 10...DAMIEN

[AZgl1800]

it is the Home Edition, and I had read that somewhere.

it was worth a try, it made her mad when the computer slowed down so bad she could not finish the work she was doing.
and it is a fast machine.

[DAMIEN1307]

its fast right up until M$ gets their little hamhocks on it and updates/upgrades your "user experience"...lol...DAMIEN

[Pierre]

it's part of the Microsoft Business Model, to ensure that updates are installed,
on all windows home machines - - you can use some of those patches,
that are found on the 'net to temporarily stop those updates,
but, as you have already found, that is a constant uphill struggle.

[DAMIEN1307]

hi AZg...in all fairness, i do know a hack using powershell in win 10 home to deactivate auto updates that ive been using now on the one last holdout i have here of systems i work on (ive converted 74 systems to various linux flavours but cant get this one lady to convert...she is anti-linux period)...my instructions will be a little long winded since i will also have to give you the powershell script to undue this so it can eventually get its updates...i hesitated to do so before because when it is shutdown and you finally have peace and quiet, most everyone just leaves it that way leaving themselves without security updates...these hack are all or nothing so you would need to copy and past them into something like "text editor" and throw it on a usb so you can go back and forth from enable and disable as needed...let me know if you want this and dont blame me for the "wall of text"...blame microcrap windwoes...lol...DAMIEN

[AZgl1800]

hi AZg...in all fairness, i do know a hack using powershell in win 10 home to deactivate auto updates that ive been using now on the one last holdout i have here of systems i work on (ive converted 74 systems to various linux flavours but cant get this one lady to convert...she is anti-linux period)...my instructions will be a little long winded since i will also have to give you the powershell script to undue this so it can eventually get its updates...i hesitated to do so before because when it is shutdown and you finally have peace and quiet, most everyone just leaves it that way leaving themselves without security updates...these hack are all or nothing so you would need to copy and past them into something like "text editor" and throw it on a usb so you can go back and forth from enable and disable as needed...let me know if you want this and dont blame me for the "wall of text"...blame microcrap windwoes...lol...DAMIEN

I will do a PM to you DAMIEN.

[DAMIEN1307]

i really dont know how to use the PM...guess im getting old...tried to do it but it just didnt happen i guess...so im posting it here, where i know how to do it...DAMIEN

Run either Windows PowerShell or Windows Command Prompt as ADMINISTRATOR. The easiest approach is to right-click on the Start menu and then click on the corresponding app with the “(Admin)” description.

Enter:

sc.exe config wuauserv start= disabled

The result will be a success message.



Then do this to stop the service

sc.exe stop wuauserv

This stops the Windows Update Service. You’ll likely get a fairly confusing success message.
it states “STOP_PENDING”, it’s likely that the service has stopped completely by the time you’ve finished reading the message.
it will also say (not stoppable, not pausable, ignores shutdown etc...dont believe it, they lie...lol

To test that Windows Update is disabled go to the Updates section of the settings app and clicking on Check for updates. It should fail.



To re-enable Windows Updates, reverse the process.

First, change the setting that will allow the service to be started again make sure your powershell or command prompt is opened as the ADMIN.

sc.exe config wuauserv start= auto

To confirm this works, start the service:

sc.exe start wuauserv

To test that this works again, return to Windows Update in the Settings app and click on Retry or Check for updates.


BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING POSSIBLE ISSUE:(You can make a "batch" file to mitigate this issue as well):


A disabled Windows Update service can magically become re-enabled after some period of time. It’s unclear if this is days, weeks, or longer.

If you find yourself needing to do this frequently, one approach would be to put the disable and enable commands into their own “batch” or command file.

For example, create a simple text file in Notepad called, disable-wu.cmd. In that file, put the two lines:

sc.exe config wuauserv start= disabled
sc.exe stop wuauserv

Then run that batch file from within an admin Windows Command Prompt. You’ll probably also want to have its counterpart:

sc.exe config wuauserv start= auto
sc.exe start wuauserv

to be used when it’s time to re-enable the service.

[Portreve]

This situation should be the perfect opportunity to get more people off of Windows.

I'll revisit the subject of another thread here: What software would you like to see available for GNU+Linux?

We need — desperately need — replacements for the big titles currently available for Mac OS X and Windows because there's no point in presenting Windows users with an alternative platform if what they need to do is not represented on it.

[Pierre]

We need — desperately need — replacements for the big titles currently available for Mac OS X and Windows because there's no point in presenting Windows users with an alternative platform if what they need to do is not represented on it.

so - what Big Title Replacements - are you thinking of ?.

the Biggest Target is M$ Office - - what others ?. Adobe ? that one is a PiTA.

[Portreve]

We need — desperately need — replacements for the big titles currently available for Mac OS X and Windows because there's no point in presenting Windows users with an alternative platform if what they need to do is not represented on it.

so - what Big Title Replacements - are you thinking of ?.

the Biggest Target is M$ Office - - what others ?. Adobe ? that one is a PiTA.

MS Office (though, to be fair, LO is already most of the way there), Logic Pro, Pro Tools, the Adobe suite, various accounting titles... and I'm sure there's more I'm not thinking about.

[michael louwe]

.

.
Since early 2018, the windows10upgrade.exe file or Upgrade Assistant updates KB4023057, KB4023814, KB4056254, KB4284874 and KB4284880 will re-allow all blocked/disabled Windows Update = the not-up-to-date Win 10 computers will be forced auto-upgraded to the latest version, eg to Win 10 Version 1803.
....... Once these updates are installed via WU or WSUS, they cannot be uninstalled(except by Dism commands) and are hidden, like a cobra snake waiting to strike.

[jimallyn]

Since early 2018, the windows10upgrade.exe file or Upgrade Assistant updates KB4023057, KB4023814, KB4056254, KB4284874 and KB4284880 will re-allow all blocked/disabled Windows Update = the not-up-to-date Win 10 computers will be forced auto-upgraded to the latest version, eg to Win 10 Version 1803.
....... Once these updates are installed via WU or WSUS, they cannot be uninstalled(except by Dism commands) and are hidden, like a cobra snake waiting to strike.

Sounds like yet another good reason to dump Windows and upgrade to Linux.

[Pierre]

where it gets interesting, is when You Manually Update the Windows System,

as in one instance, that manual Update kept Failing, due to an Hardware Driver Issue,
- certificate identity failure, of that driver.
when the various methods of hacking the system also failed, & a few hours had been consumed up,
the I'd gave up, as well. there was No Way To Manually Update to a later release of win-10.

but - - a few months later, when I'd checked the windows version again:
- -it had been updated now the owner of that machine, wouldn't have done that,
so it had to have been Auto-Updated by Microsoft.

which means, that the Auto-FeedBack would have indicated that hardware failure,
and that Microsoft had resolved that hardware issue, in order to Auto-Update the machine.


this scenario is fairly typical of the Windows System:
- - it Auto-Updates when you Don't want it to . .
- - won't Update when You Do Want it to . . .

[lsemmens]

The easiest way to prevent Windows updates is to stop using Windows. Another trick that I've used in the past, is to tell Windows that you are on a metered connection and not to load updates on metered connections. Can't recall where now, but have a look in Windows update manager, and there will be a check box there for part of it, and IIRC Network manager to tell it that this is a metered connection.

[AZgl1800]

had a conversation with my daughter yesterday.....

what applications do you use??

Microsoft Office, "Writer", database, calc,

she said she don't care what is under the hood, so long as she can use the same apps she is using now,
ACCESS
EXCEL
WORD

said she don't use the other stuff, right now, I have Office 2003 loaded on the PC, as we will NOT pay the M$loft people a subscription for anything.

she runs a small home business with those apps, and needs to be able to keep on rolling w/o having to stop and figure out how to use something different.

so, what is the most successful way of running MS Office on Linux?

[DAMIEN1307]

hi AZg...the best i can tell you is that "peppermint 9" has an "ice" (cloud based) FREE microsoft office application built in...

"What is new in version 9 is a collection of Microsoft Office Online SSBs. These are links to the free Web app version of Office, which includes Excel, Word, OneNote and PowerPoint. The Internet section of the main menu also has SSB locations for connecting to Skype, the Peppermint User Guide Online and the Peppermint Forum."

look it up on line and see if that is something your daughter can use...the plus point is that it is a light weight distro...DAMIEN

[jimallyn]

The easiest way to prevent Windows updates is to stop using Windows.

+1

[AZgl1800]

hi AZg...the best i can tell you is that "peppermint 9" has an "ice" (cloud based) FREE microsoft office application built in...

"What is new in version 9 is a collection of Microsoft Office Online SSBs. These are links to the free Web app version of Office, which includes Excel, Word, OneNote and PowerPoint. The Internet section of the main menu also has SSB locations for connecting to Skype, the Peppermint User Guide Online and the Peppermint Forum."

look it up on line and see if that is something your daughter can use...the plus point is that it is a light weight distro...DAMIEN

I will definitely look into that....
I will do the Linux install alongside her current Win10 so that she can flip flop back and forth which will make the Intro to Linux less painful.

I think she will be okay, IF, I make it easy for her to use ACCESS, WORD, and EXCEL in native form.

Firefox is the only browser she uses, so that is the same in every distro I have tried, even on Windows.

[AZgl1800]

.

Just now had a chance to look into https://peppermintos.com/

to see what it is all about. I like the fact that it feels like Cinnamon, and is very familiar to me.
checked out all of the features for software, and happy to see that they have grouped the available software into groups making it easy for the neophyte to find what they want.

the free MS Office software hopefully will give her all she needs, there was one major app they don't include, IIRC, that is ACCESS.

the 2nd minor hurdle is going to be the fact that we have a Rural internet connection subject to the vagaries of the wind and rain.
We often loose our ISP for a few seconds to an hour.... that could be a drawback.

When we have the longer outages though, we fire up my Verizon Wireless Ellipsis JetPack WiFi module and keep on keeping on.
the downside of that is if we go over our 4gB/month limit, it gets EXPEN$IVE.

Thanks for bringing that up as a solution, I am going to install it as Dual Boot with the existing Win10.
She can always do a Save As and put her work on a USB thumb drive. Which is where she has learned to keep it anyway, she got burned with the 3rd laptop backwards when it just simply failed to boot up, and was never able make it do so again.