Stop Windows Update service
This post explains how to stop Windows update service from command line(CMD). Make sure that you open elevated administrator command prompt to execute this command.
How to stop Windows update service
Do the following
- Open elevated command prompt
- Run the below command.
Update service restarts automatically
It’s observed that just stopping the service does not work in some cases and it restarts automatically. In such cases one can disable the service completely by running below command.
Note that these commands to stop or disable service should be run from elevated administrator command prompt. Other wise you will get the following error.
How to start windows update
Neat tip. However, it seems W7 is automatically restarting the Windows Update service every now and then. I’ve changed status to “Manual” under services.msc but the behavior remains. No fun at all.
Hi Carl
FYI everytime you go into windows update it will start the service even though it is set to manual so if you need to look in windows update then stop the service again afterwards.
Run CMD as Admin and “sc config wuauserv start= disabled” will work on Win7Ulti
Please help me to stop the windows update, it is a disaster every time after windows update, totally stupid program, may be next time I should go for apple.
you gott the error because you have’nt run cmd as administrator
Apple is more stupid than the windows.
I cannot get windows update to stop, finish, or go away! How do I get this to stop so I can get back on the computer? It’s a brand new computer, and useless at this point!
Set to disabled and reboot!
Wow thank you for putting this line up here. I needed to restart my windows update and this did the trick
Yes – agreed thanks much appreciated! On a very slow connection so bandwidth is at a premium. This made things much more pleasant.
#Persistent
interval = 600 ; execution interval in seconds
Menu, Tray, Add ; divider line
Menu, Tray, Add, Execute Now, StopService
Menu, Tray, Default, Execute Now
timer_param := -1000 * interval
StopService:
Run %comspec% /c “sc query wuauserv | find “1 STOPPED” & if errorlevel 1 sc stop wuauserv”, , Hide
time = %A_Now%
time += %interval%, seconds
FormatTime, time_string, %time%, Time
Menu, Tray, Tip, Stop Windows Update Service`nNext Execution at %time_string%
SetTimer, StopService, %timer_param%
return
Hi! even thou i star cmd as admin i still get the “error 5 access denied. can someone help me?
go to start menu —> type “cmd” in the search box, wait till cmd shows in the results list, right click on “cmd” and select “run as administrator”
You need to run it from elevated command prompt.
otherwise, check your UAC and if it’s off, turn it on in your account settings.
This information is for those who wish to completely disable Windows 10 automatic updates. It is very simple and requires no real expertise.
1. Bring up your task manager.
2. Select the “Services” tab.
3. Scroll down the lefthand side until you see “wuauserv”. (In the description column to the right, you’ll see “Windows Update”.)
4. Right click on “wuauserv”.
5. In the dropdown box that appears, click on “stop”.
This stops all automatic updates from taking over your computer. In order to get future updates, you will have to follow the same steps, but click on “start” to restart it. I prefer simply to go to Microsoft’s website to find the updates, if I want them at all, which I don’t. I’ve struggled with Microsoft’s updates for years, from Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and now Windows 10. All of them have rendered my computer(s) less functional than they were prior to the updates.
I use a separate security program in conjunction with Windows firewall and find that there is absolutely no need to upload their security updates.
hi, I am having endless problems with my surface pro3, running win10pro. the overwhelming majority of my time spent on this device is occupied by trying to update and keep in functioning without sending me endless notifications. I am an aspiring Linux user, which so far as I can tell, is superior in every way, however, I am concerned if the security is dependable…? I was wondering what the security program is that you referenced? and would be eager to hear any other suggestions/tips/opinions?
I tried this and got a message that access is denied.
Same problem on my PC. Svchost.exe takes continuously almost 100% processor time.
Stopped wuauserv in the way described above and the processor is free. However after a restart it is running again. Same after stopping it via the command: net stop wuauserv.
Anybody knows how I can stop this wuauserv forever.
You need to disable the service using sc command. Added these commands in the post.
Hi all, a tip for all of those having issues with Windows update, if you go to services.msc and stop the service in the second tab you can select a user to run the service with afterwards.
So you only need to put a valid user and then change the password of that user and voila! it wont ever be able to run again since it will be trying to run with an invalid user… 🙂
I wind up stopping and disabling this service every day or two, yet somehow Windows keeps turning it back to Automatic and running it! (on an older laptop which has to stay at XP)
Just want to say Thank YOU! I got nearly crazy (even more than normal) because my laptop was making so much noise while windows was checking updates for hours. Tried to close it through task manager to no avail but this tip worked as a charm.
I had no problems at all that was until windows installed updates and I could not get into windows anymore. Thanks no thanks. So now I am going to try to see if I can download the updates one by one or so. Thanks again. Love the sound of silence
Surely it would be much easier to use computer management services scroll down to windows update and apply the above directly with the advantage that you can see what you are actually doing.
Thanks for the tip. CPU had been running crazy trying to keep up with the update service. The CPU temp has dropped from 43 degrees Celcius to 35 degrees.
Omg! Thanks you! I was stuck in windows update hell!
Thanks for the info. I made a .bat file to stop, and one to start with this info. Just run as administrator and it works 🙂
I hope the above stop up dates work as my computer is all bet useless
from cmd run
sc queryex wuauserv
take pidnum from result and replace xxx in
taskkill /PID xxx/F and run
This is a good short term (few days) fix but on Windows 10 home edition, update restarts itself after a few days. There is a regedit out there but it doesn’t work for Home edition. The WUSH tool also only works for a few days.
Would be great if there were a way to program this “sc config wuauserv start= disabled” command to re-run itself every 2 days. Does anyone know how to do this?
Just put the command in a batch file, then schedule a task launching it with highest priviledge “when the computer starts”. (^v^)
i am running cmd as administrator but also the following cmd net stop wuauserv is saying invalid what to do then
Erm… I disabled the command using the command prompt (admin), but the file Windows10Upgrade keeps appearing. Help me please!
I can’t stop windows 10 update using service stopping, when I connect to wifi ,service is auto enable how can I stop permanently
Is there any command just to show the windows update is on or off ?
How can I disable windows updates for all the computers on the network?
Unfortunately, Windows 10 Home does not allow users to turn off automatic updates. To do that, you would have to upgrade to the Pro version. Otherwise, you’re looking at a lot of punishing hours spent rolling back updates you didn’t want… I had this issue with an error related to a registry conflict that prioritizes RuntimeBroker and found that this was the case during my research into the cause for the ongoing rollbacks.
I have no access to stop and disable the services. Can anyone tell me what to do in this case?
Hello, I am searching across the internet to find a solution to fix the svchost.exe disk usage, and almost every one of them suggests to disable or turn manual the Windows Update Service. I already did that, but the svchost.exe thing keeps consuming my disk.
If you know how to fix this, please tell me.
Can always services >Windows update
right click, properties, Revoery, and change to no action for all 3… see if that may help.
Thanks, had to get around an invasive group policy to repair bitlocker bde protectors, this was the trick I needed to disable updates so my bitlocker tables could be repaired.
Brent, New Zealand
I’ve tried lot of things… Finally, found the solution here! Thanks a LOT!
Automate Service Management Through net stop and sc Command
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Table of Contents
Every Windows admin out there has to deal with Windows services at some point. Automating service management with command-line tools like net stop and the sc command comes in handy when scripting Windows services.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to manage Windows services in just about every way from the command prompt.
Let’s get started!
Prerequisites
If you’d like to follow along with this tutorial, please make sure you have the following:
- A Windows 7+ computer. The tutorial will be using a Windows 10 Build 2004 machine.
Finding Service Names
Since the net and sc commands are both command-line tools, it’s sometimes not the easiest to find the actual service names to work with. Both commands require you to provide a service name, not the service display name. You find the service name in the services.msc console as shown below
service name in the services.msc console
Managing Services with the SC Command
Let’s kick off this service management tutorial with the sc command. The sc command is a built-in command-line tool that’s been built into Windows for a long time. This command can handle everything you need to manage Windows services from the command prompt.
All commands in this section will also work on remote computers. To run sc against a remote computer, specify the computer name in the command e.g. sc \\REMOTENAME <some command> .
1. To get started, open a command prompt as administrator.
2. Run the sc query command. The sc query command queries all Windows services and returns information such as the name ( SERVICE_NAME ), display name ( DISPLAY_NAME ), state, and more. If you don’t know the service name, sc query is your friend to find it.
Run the sc query command
3. Once you have the service name you’d like to work with, append the name to sc query like below to limit the output only to that particular service. You can see below that the Windows Update Agent service is STOPPED .
Querying wuauserv service
4. Next, start the service by invoking sc start followed by the name of the service. Once you do, you’ll see that Windows puts the service into a START_PENDING state while it’s starting. sc start wuauserv
Starting wuauserv service
5. Wait a few seconds and check the status of the service with sc query . You should now see that the service is running.
Querying wuauserv service status
6. Along the same line as starting a service, you can also stop a service with the sc command using the sc stop command. You’ll see the service turn into a STOP_PENDING state. After a few seconds, check the status with sc query like before.
Stopping wuauserv service
7. Perhaps you’d prefer to suspend the service rather than stopping it. In that case, simply use the sc pause command. You’ll see the service immediately goes into a PAUSED state. The below example is using the apphostcsv service as an example.
All the services do not support pausing. You can find all services that support pausing by running sc query and ensuring the service has a PAUSABLE state.
Pausing service using SC pause
You’d then see in the Windows services applet that the service is paused.
Verifying AppHostSvc service pause
When a service is running, it maintains its internal state and cache information. When stopped, the service clears all the cache and its internal state. When paused, the service maintains the cache and internal state.
8. To resume a suspending/paused service, run the sc continue command. You’ll then see the service immediately goes back to a RUNNING state. sc continue apphostsvc
Continuing apphostsvc service
Managing Services with the NET Stop Command
One of the oldest and most useful Windows admin commands is the net command. The net command can do a lot but one of its strengths is working with services. Using the net command, you can stop, start, pause and resume services with a single command like sc .
This section will be working with the BITS and Windows Update services as an example.
On a Windows PC:
1. Open a Command Prompt as administrator.
2. Use the net stop command to stop the BITS service providing the service name to stop. When you stop a service with net stop , you’ll see the service go into a pending state and then, if all goes well, a stopped state.
Unlike the sc command, net can’t query the status of services.
Stopping BITS service
3. To start the service back up, replace stop with start and net will perform the opposite effect. net start BITS
Starting BITS service
If the service is already started, you will see a message stating “The requested service has already been started”. Similarly, if the service is stopped and you attempt to stop it, you will see “The service is not started” message in output.
4. To pause a running service, similar to sc , execute the net pause command as shown below. To continue, use the continue command.
Pausing AppHostSvc service
Continuing AppHostSvc service
Managing Multiple Services at Once
In the previous sections, you were working with a single service. Using the command prompt’s built in for construct, you can extend that functionality to work with multiple services at once.
To manage multiple services at once:
First, create a text file like the one below with each service you’d like to start or stop separated with a new line. The for construct will read this text file. This file will be saved in C:\Temp.
Run the below command. This command consists of six components:
- For for construct declaration
- The /F switch to tell for to read a file
- The tokens string to tell for which items in each line of the text file to process. In this case, the example uses * to tell for to read the entire line.
- The in operator and file path to specify which file to read
- The do construct to tell the for construct a command to execute
- A placeholder for each line in the text file ( %A ) which represents each line in the text file as the for construct processes it
In the example below, the command prompt is reading the C:\Temp\Services.txt file with line-delimited service names and running service commands against each service in the file.
Starting multiple services
Conclusion
In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the net and sc Windows commands to manage Windows services. You should now be able to stop, start, pause and resume Windows services via the command prompt.
How about taking the next step and learning how to manage Windows services with PowerShell?
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Fix The Windows Update service could not be stopped
If you are trying to stop Windows Update service using Command Prompt, but you receive a message The Windows Update service could not be stopped, here is what you can do to stop the Service. This message appears only when you use the Command Prompt to stop the Windows Update service – and if CMD doesn’t have the admin privilege. Many people are trying to disable automatic Windows 10 Update, but you cannot stop the service for some reason, then this article will help you.
The usual command to stop the Windows Update service using CMD is:
But this may at times return the error message. If you cannot stop it even via the Windows Services Manager, then read on.
The Windows Update service could not be stopped
- Stop Windows Update service using PID
- Check Service dependencies.
1] Stop Windows Update service using PID
Every running process or service has a unique ID or PID. You can find it in the Task Manager and then use it to stop the service.
Open the Task Manager and go to the Services tab. Here you should find a service named wuauserv. You need to get the PID of that running service.
Do not forget to replace <PID> with original PID that you copied earlier from the Task Manager – which in our case is 6676.
You should be greeted with a message like this-
SUCCESS: The process with PID 6676 has been terminated.
This means you have successfully stopped the Windows Update service.
2] Check Service dependencies
Most of the Windows Services depend on other services. Sometimes those services can cause an issue due to some internal conflict. At such times, you should check the dependencies. In this case, you need to find Dependencies of this Windows Service. If any running service is using the WU service, then you may be required to stop that service first.
How do I force Windows Update Service to stop?
You can use Command Prompt to force the Windows Update service to stop in Windows 11/10. For that, you need to take the help of the Task Manager to find the PID, which is assigned with every running task. After that, you can open elevated Command Prompt and enter taskkill /f /pid <PID> command to stop the service from running on your PC.
Why can I not stop Windows Update service?
You must have administrative privilege to stop the Windows Update service. If your account doesn’t belong to the Administrator group, you might not be able to stop this service on your computer. Therefore, log in to your Administrator account and stop the Windows Update service using Services or Command Prompt. On the other hand, it is recommended to check the service dependencies as well.
Как в Windows 10 остановить загрузку обновлений.
Всем известно, что всякий раз, когда новое обновление доступно, Windows 10 автоматически загружает и устанавливает его в фоновом режиме. Если после обновления требуется перезагрузка, Windows 10 автоматически назначает перезапуск вне периода активности.
С настройками по умолчанию, Windows 10 автоматически проверяет наличие обновлений и загружает их, когда они доступны. Проблема заключается в том, что вы можете заметить что веб-страницы открываются медленно во время загрузки обновлений.
Пользователи, которые имеют высокоскоростной доступ в Интернет могут не заметить дискомфорта, но пользователи, с медленным подключением к Интернету часто жалуются на эту проблему. Было бы удобно, иметь возможность приостановить текущую загрузку обновлений Windows 10!
На данный момент, Windows 10 не предлагает легкий способ приостановить текущую загрузку обновлений. Если по какой-то причине, вы хотите, приостановить загрузку обновлений Windows 10, временно или постоянно, вы можете использовать приведенные ниже советы.
Важно: Мы всегда рекомендуем устанавливать обновления, когда они будут доступны. Windows 10 получает исправления и новые функции с помощью Windows Update, постоянная остановка обновлений Windows не рекомендуется, мы советуем приостановить обновления Windows, на короткое время.
Способ 1 из 6
Пауза загрузки обновления Windows с помощью командной строки.
С помощью нескольких простых команд, вы можете отключить службы обновления Windows 10.Выполнив три простых команды, вы можете легко управлять процессом обновления Windows 10.
Шаг 1: Откройте командную строку от имени администратора. Для этого в меню «Пуск» начните набирать «Командная строка» или «CMD», кликните верхний результат правой кнопкой мыши и выберите «Запуск от имени Администратора». Если вы видите приглашение контроля учетных записей пользователей, нажмите кнопку «Да».
Шаг 2: Введите следующие команды одну за другой, и не забудьте нажать клавишу Enter после каждой введенной команды.
Может потребоваться некоторое время, чтобы остановить службу Windows Update.
Остановка фоновой интеллектуальной службы передачи.
Остановка службы оптимизации доставки.
Шаг 3: Центр обновления Windows теперь должен сделать паузу и перестанет устанавливать обновления, но вы можете включить его в любой момент.
Включение загрузки Обновлений Windows 10.
Шаг 1: Откройте командную строку с правами администратора .
Шаг 2: Выполните следующие команды, чтобы запустить все остановленные службы и возобновить загрузки обновления Windows.
- net start wuauserv
- net start bits
- net start dosvc
Шаг 3: Перейдите в приложение «Параметры Windows» → «Обновление и безопасность» → «Центр обновления Windows». Вы должны увидеть возобновление загрузки обновлений Windows. Если нет, подождите некоторое время.
Если Windows 10 не проверяет автоматически наличие обновлений после их выхода, возможно, потребуется очистить кэш обновления Windows. С помощью встроенного в ОС Windows 10 инструмента для устранения неполадок связанных с Обновлением Windows.
Способ 2 из 6
Включите Лимитное подключение.
Поскольку Windows 10 не загружает обновления, когда включено Лимитное подключение, вы можете установить ваше текущее подключение к интернет как лимитное, чтобы приостановить загрузку обновлений Windows.
Перейдите в «Параметры» → «Сеть и Интернет» → «Wi-Fi» или «Ethernet», кликните на текущей сети, а затем включите опцию — «Задать как лимитное подключение».
Способ 3 из 6
Приостановка обновлений с помощью приложения «Параметры».
Windows 10 не предлагает легкий способ приостановить текущую загрузку обновлений. Начиная с Windows 10 build 14997 «Октябрьское Обновление 2018 год», система позволяет приостанавливать обновления. На странице «Обновление и безопасность» приложения «Параметры» была добавлена специальная опция. После ее включения обновления будут приостановлены на 35 дней.
- Откройте приложение «Параметры»
- Перейдите в раздел «Обновление и Безопасность» → «Центр обновления Windows» и нажмите ссылку «Дополнительные параметры» (см. картинку).
- На странице перейдите к разделу «Приостановка обновлений» и передвиньте ползунок переключателя в положение «Вкл.».
Когда опция включена, обновления будут приостановлены на 35 дней. Если вы являетесь инсайдером Windows, и ваш ПК настроен на получение предварительных сборок ОС, обновления будут приостановлены только на 7 дней. Кроме того, некоторые важные обновления, такие как определения для Защитника Windows, будут по-прежнему загружаться и устанавливаться независимо от состояния параметра «Приостановка обновлений».
Способ 4 из 6
Отключить автоматическое обновление (не проверять наличие обновлений), в Windows 10 с помощью реестра.
Способ 5 из 6
С помощью инструмента Win Update Stop.
Этот инструмент может остановить автоматическое обновление одним нажатием кнопки. Он предлагает простой способ отключить обновления на любой Windows. Вам не нужно вручную вносить изменения в настройки или реестр. Всего одним нажатием кнопки обновления Windows 10 будут отключены на вашем компьютере. Но вы можете включить их, когда захотите.
Не только Windows 10, Win Update Stop поддерживает все версии Windows, включая Windows 8 и Windows 7. Так что в любой версии вы можете остановить всевозможные обновления с помощью этого инструмента.
Чтобы отключить обновления, просто нажмите кнопку «Отключить». Чтобы проверить что все обновление системы отключено, вы можете перейти в «Параметры» → «Обновление и безопасность». Вам будет сообщено, что Windows не смогла загрузить обновления, что свидетельствует о том, что инструмент отлично работает на вашем компьютере.
Win Update Stop — это, несомненно, экономия времени и отличная удобная утилита, на странице загрузки вы можете скачать Portable версию утилиты, которая не требует установки.
Способ 6 из 6
С помощью инструмента StopUpdates10.
StopUpdates10 — это инструмент, который необходимо установить для блокировки обновлений Windows 10. Хотя есть ручной способ отключить обновления. Но для некоторых пользователей это слишком сложно. Возьмите обновления Windows, под свой контроль!
Данная утилита имеет три варианта взаимодействия:
Первая кнопка «Запрет обновлений Windows» — Блокирует все обновления Windows 10.
Вторая кнопка «Разрешить обновления Windows». После нажатия на кнопку Служба Windows Update работает как обычно.
Дополнительная опция «Приостановить обновления» даст вам возможность указать дату до которой обновления будут приостановлены.