Windows update takes all my bandwidth

Question

I have windows Seven ultimate 64 bits

When windows is downloading its updates it kills my bandwidth.

Is there a way to limit the maximum bandwidth that windows can take for its updates ?

Answer 1

Is there a way to limit the maximum bandwidth that windows can take for its updates ?

Hi

It can Not be done by the OS. There is a 3rd party software that can help in controlling Bandwidth use, but I do not know if it can control Updates traffic (http://www.netlimiter.com/betas.ph p ).

Otherwise "play" with the time of the Update.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/windowsupdate/faq.mspx

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Jack-MVP Windows Networking. WWW.EZLAN.NET

Answer 2

i've added the info to my answer

Answer 3

Where is the new "Delivery Optimization" policy in the Group Policy Editor? I can't find it.

Answer 4

In Windows 10 BITS is not used by windows update, instead WUDO, Microsofts interpretation of Bittorrent is used. Therefore it wouldn't help to limit BITS connections and for taking all Bandwidth it wouldn't help to limit connections per Server.

But the good news is, that Group Policies will be well respected, you just have to use the right Policies.

In Windows 10 there's a new Policy "Delivery Optimization " where you can control the behavior of WUDO. In my case i simply limit the total bandwith but it's possible to control WUDO very detailed. You can set it to use BITS too. When the bandwidth is limited, the amount of used connections will be limited too - i think not to a fixed value but depending on the used bandwidth. I had up to 20 Connections before limiting the bandwidth, now only 4 conections were used.

I have not tested what the setting "Choose how updates are delivered" exactly does, if it disables WUDO and enable BITS or if it only sets WUDO to not use shared delivery, the latter would not really help as it would still use a lot connections to download from only microsoft, which i think is the case.

edit (2016-07-12)

I have the german version of windows, so i don't exactly know how the english names are in the policy editor, it's something like this:

Computerconfiguration -> adminstrative templates -> windows components -> delivery optimization

(german: Computerkonfiguration -> Administrative Vorlagen -> Windows-Komponenten -> Übermittlungsoptimierung)

This is in the latest windows insider build, i'm not sure if it is in the release versions 10240 or 1511. You can download the latest gp templates here

Answer 5

That suggested 10 kb/s maximum download rate is from at least ten years ago = dial-up internet service.

2.5 MB/s is being used by my Windows Update, slowing internet service on every computer in the house.