CONTROL YOUR WINDOWS UPDATES 1Don’t

let updates interrupt your work

By default, Windows 10 is configured to look for and install updates at random times of the day. But ‘random’ quite often translates to ‘just when I want to use my PC for something important’, resulting in you having to deal with a potential restart just when you’re trying to get some work done.

Thankfully, Windows has a way to delay interruptions from updates until a time that suits you. Active Hours works by setting aside a daily period when Windows will block updates from bothering you. To use this option, click Start, Settings, ‘Update & security’, then ‘Change active hours’. Select your ‘Start time’ and ‘End time’ from the dropdown menus and click Save (see screenshot above).

1 Slow Wi-fi

Updates can conflict with your PC’S wireless adapter, but this would tend to make your connection drop out rather than slow it. Check with your internet provider and test the speed of the connection with other devices.

2 Slow start-up

Updates rarely affect how quickly your PC starts. It’s usually start-up items from programs you’ve installed that are to blame. Right-click the taskbar, click Task Manager, then click the Start-up tab and disable any you don’t need.

3 Corrupted files

If documents, photos and other files won’t open properly, it’s likely to be your hard-drive’s fault. Right-click the drive in File Explorer, click Properties, Tools, then Check and follow the instructions to scan your drive for errors.

more warnings about restarts

One of the more annoying aspects of automatic Windows updates is that they tend to restart your PC without much warning. And, even if you’ve set Active Hours as explained in tip 1, a restart may still catch you off-guard. To address this, you can set Windows 10 to provide you with more notifications whenever it is about to finish installing an update. Click Start, Settings, ‘Update & security’, then click ‘Restart options’ and switch on the ‘Show more notifications’ option here. Notifications themselves can be pretty irritating, but it’s the lesser of two evils.

updates slowing down your broadband

Windows 10 still defaults to sharing data about your updates with other PCS on your network, using a type of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology. This is safe – no one will be able to hijack the connection to steal your data. But it uses up bandwidth, which can slow your broadband, and could put you over your monthly allowance if you’re on a capped or metered deal.

To configure update sharing, click Start, Settings, ‘Update & security’, then click ‘Advanced options’. Look for a setting called Delivery Optimisation – it will be called ‘Choose how updates are delivered’ if you’re using a pre-fcu version of Windows 10. Click this, then either select the ‘PCS on my local network’ option (if you’re happy to share update data with your own computers) or just switch off ‘Allow downloads from other PCS’ altogether.

tune bandwidth consumption

Usefully, the FCU provides new options for controlling and viewing how Windows Updates are downloaded. Open the Delivery Optimisation settings page (as described in the previous tip) then click ‘Advanced options’. Under ‘Download settings’, tick the ‘Limit how much bandwidth is used for downloading updates in the background’ option, then use the slider to specify how much you want. If you’ve left internet update file-sharing enabled (see previous tip), you can use the two options under ‘Upload settings’ to throttle upload bandwidth and set a monthly data limit (see screenshot below).

HOW I SURVIVE WINDOWS UPDATES

Personal experience has taught me that there are only two things you need to conquer any update catastrophe: a little patience and a recent system-image backup.

On more than one occasion I’ve been seconds away from turning my computer off at the ‘Don’t turn off your computer’ screen, assuming an update was stuck, only for it to spring back to life and complete successfully. That’s where the patience comes in.

As for the system-image backup, that’s what brought my PC back from the dead when the Windows 10 Anniversary Update tried to kill it off. I was able to boot my PC to a system-repair disc, then restore my system image. Eighteen tense minutes later, I was greeted by my desktop as normal. I’d lost a few files because the system image was a few days old, so nowadays I never apply a feature update without backing up like a maniac immediately beforehand.

I use the old Windows 7 systemimage tools, which you’ll find by opening Settings and clicking ‘Update & security’, Backup, then ‘Go to Backup and Restore’. It doesn’t cost anything and it’s the best insurance policy there is. double-click it to run it, then click Next. The tool will attempt to detect problems automatically. Click ‘Hide updates’, tick the box next to any updates that aren’t working, then click Next. To reverse this process, run the tool again, then select ‘Show hidden updates’ when prompted.

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