Windows 10 New Feature: Limit Bandwidth for Windows Update

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Windows Update takes a lot of internet bandwidth. Sometimes, the update could be a few gigabits and it could use up all your internet bandwidth to take down your entire network for a while. There is no way to limit the bandwidth used for Windows Update, until now.

Windows 10 update - Windows 10 New Feature: Limit Bandwidth for Windows Update

Microsoft finally adds this long overdue feature requested by many Windows 10 users on Windows 10 since build 16237. Though it’s only available for Windows Insiders at the moment, it should be and will be part of the upcoming Windows 10 Falls Creators Update.

And here is how to enable and adjust the setting.

Open Settings app, go to Update & Security and click Advanced options under Update settings.

Settings Update Security advanced options - Windows 10 New Feature: Limit Bandwidth for Windows Update

Then, click Delivery Optimization link.

Settings Update Security advanced options optimize delivery - Windows 10 New Feature: Limit Bandwidth for Windows Update

Next, go to another Advanced options section.

Settings Update Security advanced options optimize delivery advanced options - Windows 10 New Feature: Limit Bandwidth for Windows Update

And here you go, a new section where you can enable and adjust the settings to limit the bandwidth used for Windows Update.

Settings Bandwidth Limit for Windows Update - Windows 10 New Feature: Limit Bandwidth for Windows Update

By default, Windows will dynamically optimize the download and upload bandwidth used for Windows and app updates. But you can manually set up the limits for yourself if you like. You can set limits separately for download and upload. For upload, you can even set up a cap for monthly upload.

For those who are yet on Windows Insiders program but are having the problem dealing with Windows Update bandwidth issue, check out this what-to-do post.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Already know the criterion of how Windows will identify the total bandwidth available to calculate the percentage on it? I did not see anything about it in the screenshots. Is it the same way as the QoS Packet Scheduler?

    I hope it does not consider the speed indicated on the connection of the network card, which is not usually the same as the internet. Will we need new modems and routers that will report this to Windows?

    • Good question. Now that you’ve mentioned, I actually prefer the idea to set the limitation in Kbps. But I guess for the general users the percentage may work better. Let’s see how much improvement Microsoft could put in to make it better.

  2. +1, didn’t find any information about how DO calculates available bandwidth. This must be interesting to determine the impact of this parameter. Is it the avaible bandwidth between the client and the update source (WSUS, Windows Update), or between the client and a another Peer, or between the client and the Cloud Optimization Service,or based on the network adapter speed ?
    Perhaps this value dynamically change in the first 2 cases since the source can be the WSUS for a client and a peer for another… In this scenario, a percentage is better than an absolute value.

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