Today I noticed my internet speed running slower that usual when running an internet speed test over the wireless network, I isolated the network usage to automatic Windows Update downloads that were in progress yet frustratingly there was no way to stop the Windows Update session.
Here’s how to pause/suspend an in-progress Windows Update session in Windows 10 as a local Administrator (by default for personal computers):
- Click the Start menu
- Type
cmdto open the Windows search dialog with Command Prompt appearing as the Best Match - Right click Command Prompt and from the dropdown menu select Run as Administrator
- The Command Prompt window will appear
- Enter the following Windows command:
net stop wuauserv - If successful the following response will be given:
The Windows Update service was stopped successfully. - Close the Command Prompt window
That’s it! 🙂
To resume your Windows Update session either open Windows Update from Settings > Update & Security and click the Retry button, open another Command Prompt window using the above instructions and replace net stop wuauserv with net start wuauserv, or simply restart Windows from the Start > Power menu.