Windows 10 Updater Disabler is a new program for Microsoft’s operating system that turns updates on or off reliably.
Windows 10 offers less UI control over the updating behavior of the operating system than previous versions of Windows.
If you check the settings application for instance, you only get options to defer feature updates if you run Pro or Enterprise, but no longer an option to switch the updating process to manual, or to deactivate Windows Update.
If you want control over the update process, you have to look elsewhere for these settings. One reliable way of disabling updates is to disable the Windows Update service.
This requires that you open the Services manager, locate the service and change its startup parameter and status.
You would then have to enable the service again whenever you want the operating system to check for updates.
Windows 10 Updater Disabler
Windows 10 Updater Disabler is a program for Windows that installs a service that blocks Windows Update from installing updates on the computer.
The service does not make use of Registry options to block Windows Update, as they may be modified by updates eventually (e.g. reset).
It runs checks for Windows Update’s status regularly and terminates it when found to be running.
Instead, it uses an undocumented system call to check the current state of Windows Update and tries to terminate it immediately.
The service disables all scheduled tasks that are related to Windows Update on top of that when installed on the system.
Installation
To install the Service, do the following:
- Download the Updater Disabler archive from the WinAero website, and extract it once downloaded.
- Open an elevated command prompt. Tap on the Windows-key, type cmd.exe, hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys, and hit the Enter-key.
- The title of the command prompt window begins with Administrator if it is elevated.
- Navigate to the folder you have extracted the Updates Disabler program to (use cd folder name for that, e.g. cd c:usersmartindownloadsupdaterdisabler
- Run the command updaterdisabler.exe -install.
If things worked out fine, you should get the following echoes on the command line:
UpdateDisabler is installed.
Service Start pending …
Service started successfully.
You can verify this in the Services configuration interface as well.
You should see the Update Disabler Service listed in the interface when you open the Services management console. It should have the status of running, and the startup type of automatic.
If you try an update check after installing the service, you will get an error message which confirms that Windows Update is disabled: We couldn’t install some updates because the PC was turned off.
Uninstallation
Uninstallation works pretty much like installation, only that you need to run the program with a different parameter.
You do need to open an elevated command prompt window again and navigate to the UpdaterDisabler directory.
- Run the command updaterdisabler.exe -remove
The program echoes steps of the process that indicate that the service is stopped and then removed.
To verify that this is indeed the case, check Services. The service should not be listed there anymore. Also, you will notice that update checks are working again just like they did before.
Closing Words
Updater Disabler requires more testing on many more devices. It did work well during tests, but it is highly suggested you back up important data before you run the software.
Anyway, the program offers another option to block Windows Update from doing its job. If you prefer to wait days, weeks or months before you install released updates, this is an reliable option to achieve that.
You can download the program from WinAero, but it has been published originally on the My Digital Life forum.