Disable Device Setup | Metadata Refresh

Question

My network is not connected to the internet. There is a scheduled task: Microsoft | Windows | Device Setup | Metdata Refresh that spams my event logs. How do I create a GPO that disables this feature?

EDIT: I'm not necessarily looking to disable the task. What is the canonical/approved/best_practice way of removing this cruft from my event viewer? Is it to disable the scheduled task? Is there a GPO that prevents the system from trying to go to the internet (and erroring out) with respect to "metadata updates"? I have an internal WSUS server which is used for windows updates -- but evidently there is still this 'back door' that is used to go to the internet for 'metadata updates' (whatever those are).

EDIT: The errors I get in the event log when the scheduled task is run on my offline network (I get multiple copies of each -- 16 in total):

Source: DeviceSetupManager
Event ID: 201
Message: A connection to the Windows Metadata and Internet Services (WMIS) could not be established.

Source: DeviceSetupManager
Event ID: 202
Message: The Network List Manager reports no connectivity to the internet.

Source: DeviceSetupManager
Event ID: 200
Message: A connectino to the Windows Update service could not be established.

Thank you,

Chris

Answer 1

LucasA's suggestion to set Computer configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> "Prevent device metadata retrieval from the Internet" helped with one of the events, but not the other two.

The real "fix" was to disable the DeviceSetupManager service. It's not needed when you are not connected to the internet. Although it would be better if you could configure the DeviceSetupManager to connect to the local WSUS server instead... so Microsoft if you're listening (ha!) please make that change.

Answer 2

Hi @Chris Stankevitz ,

You can simply disable the Metadata Refresh task schedule, however you will not have permissions to do so which means you'll need to do it as the local SYSTEM user.

1. Download the PSExec tool from SysInternals.
2. Exctract the PsExec64.exe.
3. Open up a PowerShell and run the following command: PsExec64.exe -s -i powershell.exe.
4. A new powershell window will open, if you run the whoami command you should see that you are running as nt authority\system.
5. Now you can disable the "Metadata Refresh" task schedule by running: Get-ScheduledTask -TaskPath "\Microsoft\Windows\Device Setup\" | Disable-ScheduledTask

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(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote or accept as answer, thank you)

Best regards,
Leon

Answer 3

You can disable device metadata retrieval by enabling the following Group Policy:

Computer configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> "Prevent device metadata retrieval from the Internet"

The scheduled tasks will have no effect when this policy setting is Enabled.

Answer 4

Hi,

I am glad to hear that your issue was successfully resolved\I am pleased to know that the information is helpful to you. If there is anything else we can do for you, please feel free to post in the forum.

Best Regards,
Vicky