What is the Fastest Way to Apply Windows Updates?

Question

For some reason Windows 10 Updates seem to always happen at an extremely slow speed. I have several computers and this seems
to be the case on all of them. When I look at task manager all graphs are low and there seems to be no obvious bottleneck. It's as if there was some sort of artificial limit/throttling that limits the speed at which the updates happen. Is there a way to control the limit? Alternatively is there a way to trick Windows to raising the limit? Would locking the screen trick Windows to use more power on applying the updates? Do the updates get applied faster or slower if I have the Windows Update window open?

Answer 1

Hello PaulStrling,

Initially the Windows Update service doesn't have any setting for throttling besides the computer's performance, network, and external connection speeds.

My suggestion would be to ensure that the computer is not running other 3rd Party software and also to reset the Windows Update components to avoid any kind of corruption. Please complete the next actions and try again:

• Reset Windows Update components: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/windows-update-resources#reset-windows-update-components-manually
• Run an image repair (recommended to run using a downloaded image, mounted) https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/repair-a-windows-image?view=windows-11
• Cleanup the WinSxS folder: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder?view=windows-11
• Run a clean boot: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

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Answer 2

Hello Paul,

You could try these steps provided by : https://www.techadvisory.org/2018/03/how-to-speed-up-windows-10-updates/
PS: Don't defragment an SSD.

Greetings

Answer 3

Look at the Delivery Optimization in Update & Security in the Settings.

Also check the Advanced options there. Someone might have changed some options in either of those two pages to solve a problem that is causing the current problem.

Also look at the Activity monitor, there might be something interesting there.