Insights Disabling Windows Update in Windows 10 IoT Core

Disabling Windows Update in Windows 10 IoT Core

If you’re working with Windows 10 IoT Core on your devices and have wondered how you can disable Windows Update, well wonder no more! This article will detail out the steps needed to disable this service.
 
First off, I’d like to state that I don’t recommend that you disable Windows Update on your devices running Windows 10 IoT Core, as this will prevent any future updates from being installed on your devices. Doing so may expose your devices to security vulnerabilities that would be potentially resolved in an update of IoT Core.
 
However, there may be some situations where you need to disable Windows Update on your devices, such as controlling the amount of data downloaded to your device (if connected to the Internet through a metered connection), or you need a completely stable environment that doesn’t ever change (giving an administrator the ability and control to update only when absolutely necessary).
 
Having said the above, here are the steps needed to disable Windows Update on devices running Windows 10 IoT Core:
 

Install and Run IoT Core Dashboard

Download and install IoT Core Dashboard (link) to a Windows 10 PC that is on the same network that your target device is connected to. Once you have installed IoT Core Dashboard you can run it by typing ‘IoT Core Dashboard’ in the Windows 10 Start menu search box:

Launch Remote PowerShell session on Device

Once IoT Core Dashboard is running, you should see a device entry listing (under ‘My Devices’) for the target gateway device. Right mouse click this entry to display a context menu and click on ‘Launch PowerShell’. This will launch a remote PowerShell window to the target device – you will be prompted for a username and password to access the device.

Verify PowerShell session windows is displayed

Once you enter a username and password for the target device, you will see a PowerShell window for the target device, similar to this:

Enter PowerShell commands to disable Windows Update

The following PowerShell commands will disable Windows Update on the target device:
              sc.exe config wuauserv start=disabled
              sc.exe stop wuauserv
 
Here is a screenshot of the results of running these commands. This is what you should see if the commands have executed successfully:

Verify Windows Update is disabled

The following PowerShell commands will verify that Windows Update has been disabled on the target device:
              sc.exe query wuauserv
              reg.exe query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\quauserv /v Start
 
Here are some screenshots of the results of running these commands. The first command should show a STATE of 1 (STOPPED), while the reg.exe query should show a REG_DWORD value of 0x4:

You are now finished! Windows Update should now be disabled on the target device.
 
There is another option for disabling Windows Update on your devices running Windows 10 IoT Core, and that involved disabling this when creating the OS image for your device (the .FFU file). Disabling Windows Update with this option would mean that after flashing IoT Core on the device you would have it permanently disabled right from the get-go, meaning you would not have to run the PowerShell command described above.
 
If you are using Windows Configuration Designer when creating your IoT Core image, there are options that allow you to disable Windows Update and other types of updates on the device. These settings are under Runtime Settings/Policies/Update and there are 4 different settings to control updates (see highlighted areas in the screenshot below):

I hope this article helps in understanding the options and steps in disabling Windows Update on your devices running Windows 10 IoT Core.
 
Thanks for reading!