Your computer has no internet connection and the only device with internet access is in your pocket. STOP, here are something you need to know before start tethering your phone to your computer. (well only stop if you have a limited data cap on your phone’s bill-cycle)
Configure Windows 10 to Use Metered Connection
Go to Settings > Network, get ready to toggle on Metered connection the moment you have connected to your phone either via USB tether or WiFi/Bluetooth tether. You cannot do this ahead of time unless you have previously tethered to the device before and the “network” has remained the same.
Once you have begun tethering, go find the current connected active network either it’s under Ethernet work Wireless page scroll down and turn on “Set as metered connection“. With Metered connection,
If you have a limited data plan and want more control over data usage, make this connection a metered network. Some apps might work differently to reduce data usage when you’re connected to this network.
Having this turned on will effectively pause all Windows update downloads if there are any, pause all Windows store app updates/download, pause OneDrive sync and any Windows 10 system networks that require large bandwidth.
Reduce Network Usage Per App Basis
Browser
What you need to know is to have a tethered mind while carrying on your tasks. If you are just mainly want to use the tether to browse the web make sure look for data save mode or extensions to reduce data usage. Chrome offers an official Data Saver extension, however, it’s limited to what you are browsing. If all you access are websites that are secure via https then this extension will have no use. They also listed a few other edge cases that would cripple the “Data Saver” extension, make sure to check the full help page if you don’t see any “Data Saver” shave off usages.
Other File Sync Apps
While Windows 10 will pause all your OneDrive from syncing and downloading unnecessary files, they can’t, however, pause Dropbox or Google Drive from syncing. You need to manually pause those apps from downloading a large number of files.
Games
Have steam running in the background? Make sure to either exit if you don’t plan to play games or pause all background download or game updates. Same is true if you play other games (ie. Blizzard)
Task Manager & Settings App to Monitor Data Usage
Ok, the last thing you probably want to pay attention is to watch out how much data your connection is using. You can go to Task Manager > Performance to monitor real-time on your active tethered network.
You can also monitor total usage of a given network adaptor from your Setting by searching for “Data usage“. Here you can reset to start collecting info just for this tether period. It also allows you to drill down to find a nice break down of where are all the data have gone.
In short, if you are planning to tether your mobile cellular data, whether if it’s a short period of time or for long extended hours or days it’s worth knowing your background on how to reduce and cut down all unnecessary data usages. Hope you’ve learned a few things and apply with action!