disable windows updater / other tweaks?

[lemoncloud]

I'll spend a bit more time on setting up my new laptop (win10 home) properly.

I wonder how to change Windows Updater to only downloading and installing updates when I wish to do so. I'm abroad often and might use roaming via my phone to get a bit of online time. If an update decides to download then I might end up with a massive phone bill. Plus internet is often extremely slow and a download might slow things down too much for other people.

Any other suggestions for tweaks, especially disabling services or change them to start when needed? There's a massive amount of services running in the background that use an equal massive amount of memory. Nothing installed on the computer so far, btw.

Are apps active in the background when they are not pinned to the start menu? And if so, how can I disable this? Again, to keep data usage down.

Thanks a lot.

 

[captaincharisma]

you can't turn updates off but you can set a timeline for the updates to install or restart the computer. go into settings-security and updates and select the option "change active hours"

 

[kittle]

I found it useful to go into the programs and features section and uninstall all the pre-loaded windows apps I will never use. Im sure some of them have background tasks that run and eat bandwidth or other system resources.
Yes this will take a while, but its very helpful in the long run.

you will need to re-do this every once in a while as the updates may add some of those apps back, or it may add new apps that you will never use and can be un-installed.

and to answer your last question
If an app is pinned to the taskbar, but not running it will have a slightly different icon when compared to an app that is pinned AND running.
If an app is not pinned to the taskbar and shows an icon, then its running.

Depending on the app - some apps have background processes that run all the time, other apps will disappear completely when you close them. most will disappear completely.

 

[Math Geek]

if you set the update option to "metered connection" then it will wait for updates and do as much in the background as it normally would. if you have the pro version you can disable auto-updates completely through group policy.

otherwise just start turning things off to make it run better as others have suggested.

 

[lemoncloud]

you can't turn updates off but you can set a timeline for the updates to install or restart the computer. go into settings-security and updates and select the option "change active hours"

Hmm.. I read that you can change it in the registry, but I didn't find that specific registry key in my machine.

I'll check it out, though to be honest, if I need to change those settings every time I go on a trip then that's rather bothersome. And I doubt I can actually set the active hours to for example 3 weeks from now.

 

[Math Geek]

i've seen where you can add a key and turn off updates but never tried it. i got pro version in my house and did it through group policy. quick google search turned this up which looks like what i saw before. give it a shot if you wish.

don't know if the reg key works for home version but feel free to give it a try. http://www.howtogeek.com/224471/how-to-prevent-windows-10-from-automatically-downloading-updates/

covers a lot of stuff relating to updates including metered connection and blocking certain ones that my be causing trouble.