Blocking Windows Update - Just stopping it completely

britechguy

britechguy

Well-Known Member
Reaction score
4,041
Location
Staunton, VA
Let me preface this with several points:

1. In virtually all cases this is something I rail against, because in virtually all normal circumstances it's just plain stupid.

2. I'm seeking this information to prepare to block Windows Updates on "a junk machine" just before whatever update comes next June that removes IE.

Background: Within the blind community, there are a number of websites that are ancient and no longer actively supported, but that nonetheless provide some really important things for their users. A couple of these fall into the IE-accessible-only class and will never, ever be updated.

Thus, I have several acquaintances who have "web browsing and emailing machines" where little to no other work is done. The don't do online banking on them, they don't have any critical data on them, and they'd like to keep IE on them.

Since I have adamantly refused to even discuss blocking Windows Update for ages now, I really have no idea if there is a way that it could be "turned off" so that a Windows 10 machine would remain in whatever state its in when that was done. Everyone involved, including myself, understands the security risks involved, but given the nature of the devices in question, that's a minor to non concern.

If there's a quick and dirty way to turn off Windows Updates and permanently keep it that way, I'd appreciate knowing what that is/those are.
 
There is a Windows Update service, you simply stop it and disable it. If you want to go a bit harder you can stop and disable the Background Intelligent Transfer Service too.

But, your original tack of never doing this is the correct path. If there are IE only assets out there, the solution now is to use them in IE mode in Edge. If that isn't workable, it's time to find new assets. Besides, we've got a year to deal with this.

I'd like to know what is IE only.

Oh, Windows Update service is set to manual trigger start by default, BITS is automatic by default.
 
I can't really answer what is IE-only, but I truly have no reason to doubt some of those reporting this circumstance (while I would doubt others).

I have mentioned IE mode in Edge and given a direct link to the MS documentation about using same. But even I notice that this requires editing group policies, and home users don't have group policy editor. I get that even using this mode should be arduous, and it should only be needed very rarely, but Home users are still not in a great situation.
 
I would think not. MS will pull downloads for IE next June, in all probability. They do this for almost anything that has reached EOL. I archived the installer for Microsoft Windows Essentials (mostly for Windows Live Mail 2012) about a week before it was pulled after retirement. It worked well for some years afterward, but I'd never recommend it now (and have had wonkiness with it on testing machines). A lot of my blind clients would have loved to have kept either Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail, and I kinda-sorta supported WLM for some years, for those clients, after EOL.

I'm not about to suggest reinstalling IE on a machine where it's been pulled from Windows 10 anyway.

One also has to remember that while IE is separable from Windows 10, just as Edge is separable from Windows 10, neither one is self-contained. Both depend on OS components in order to run. I doubt very much that the OS components that IE is dependent upon are going to remain untouched when the time for its retirement comes. I'm certainly not willing to bet that they will stay "as is" and that a reinstall of IE11, if you archived the installer, would result in a success.
 
Have you tried setting Windows Update Startup Type to Disabled under Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services ??
 

Attachments

  • services.jpg
    services.jpg
    277.2 KB · Views: 2
Just to be clear, I haven't tried anything. The reason I am asking here is that I really have made myself willfully ignorant of options for blocking Windows Updates, period, and I assume those may morph over time.

This is something that under 99.99999% of circumstances I preach against and would generally rather gnaw off my own hands than assist with. It's going to remain that way, too.

I appreciate all the information being presented.
 
@britechguy I would argue that disabling updates is a worse poison than whatever ancient web assets no longer work.

ActiveX is what's dead, and any website that's just an information portal will render just fine. I find it hard to believe there's a legitimate need to do what you're doing here. I understand why you're attempting to due your diligence in this space. But without specific examples you're fighting ghosts, and users ALL USERS must adapt.

IE hasn't been supported in decade, it's dead... any use of it TODAY is unacceptable, much less a year from now.

Disabling updates doesn't solve any problem because any machine with updates disabled will become unsafe to use inside a month. WORSE, if you read the article I posted on this topic, the change is coming to 20H1 and LATER versions of Windows 10. The way that this is happening has already sunk into the platforms in question. Given the nature of the change I wouldn't put it past Microsoft to have ALREADY patched our systems with the drop dead date, and have them simply swap configuration at the appointed time.

So you may not even be able to stop this already... because the only versions of Windows 10 known to not do any of this is 2004 and older. And 2004 dies December 12, 2021... six months before IE does.

You still cannot stop updates... not unless that machine is offline, in which case stopping the updates is irrelevant. The users must adapt! There is literally no other path forward.
 
@Sky-Knight

You're preachin' to the choir, darlin'.

But I've opted to give whoever wants it, and in private because I'm not making what I've learned here widely available, enough rope to hang themselves eventually.

I endlessly state that software (and I include websites in that) have a finite shelf life unless they are being maintained. The only sensible thing to do is cut your losses and walk away, and that's because eventually, no matter what you may do to "get away with it" a while longer, you are going to lose it suddenly, without warning, and without ever having given a thought about either doing without or establishing some viable alternative.

But I have 20H2, and IE is still on it. To my knowledge it's also still a part of 21H1, so that would be the terminal "includes IE" Windows 10 version.

I have, on more than one occasion, had to bid farewell to many an "old friend" in cyberspace (and even installed on my own computers) as time has marched on. To me, that's just a natural part of life, and one I am never going to waste any more time fighting. In the end, it's gone, and I'd rather go through the transitions at the same time as everyone else.

I actually gave a version of that last paragraph when Windows 10 arrived. So many people wasted so much time resisting going to Windows 10, but you know what, if you intend to stay in the Windows ecosystem going forward that's where you must be. And when whatever replaces Windows 10 comes along, you'll need to "go there," too. All the things that blocked updating to Windows 10 were just so much wasted energy. I still feel this way. You either go with the flow and swim, or you will drown in trying to resist doing so.
 
If you are looking to completely disable Windows updates or other features of Windows 10 check this software out. It's portable so no need to install it, but I used it for a couple years when Windows 10 first launched. I still use it here and there, but only with the Limited settings to turn off the telemetry crap and such.

O&O ShutUp10++ – Free antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11

With the freeware O&O ShutUp10++, unwanted Windows 10 and 11 features can be disabled and the transfer of sensitive personal data onto Microsoft prevented.
www.oo-software.com www.oo-software.com
 
Perhaps a good application for a virtual machine? And/Or scrape the important sites and save them locally, then permanently disconnect the machine from the Internet?

I had an tape drive with one of the first embedded web interfaces. It only worked on IE 3. I kept a Win2000 VM just for accessing that appliance.
 
^^^ Second the VM.

Roll out a W7 VM in VBox. Now a days it won't prompt to update to W10. While, technically, doing a P2V of a OEM VM is a EULA violation I'd have not problem with that given the situation. And one can be certain M$ wouldn't sick their dogs, I mean lawyers, on someone in that situation.

And @britechguy have you tried contacting M$ about this? Accessibility is unit in of itself. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/feedback?rtc=1 Maybe a lot of squeaky wheels will help them listen if they aren't already.
 
A simple idea I just thought of:

Add localhost to all Microsoft Domains in the hosts file assuming the user has Gmail etc and doesn't really touch Microsoft stuff. Unless MS relies on non MS domains for updates.
 
britechguy said:
I would think not. MS will pull downloads for IE next June, in all probability. They do this for almost anything that has reached EOL. I archived the installer for Microsoft Windows Essentials (mostly for Windows Live Mail 2012) about a week before it was pulled after retirement. It worked well for some years afterward, but I'd never recommend it now (and have had wonkiness with it on testing machines). A lot of my blind clients would have loved to have kept either Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail, and I kinda-sorta supported WLM for some years, for those clients, after EOL.

I'm not about to suggest reinstalling IE on a machine where it's been pulled from Windows 10 anyway.

One also has to remember that while IE is separable from Windows 10, just as Edge is separable from Windows 10, neither one is self-contained. Both depend on OS components in order to run. I doubt very much that the OS components that IE is dependent upon are going to remain untouched when the time for its retirement comes. I'm certainly not willing to bet that they will stay "as is" and that a reinstall of IE11, if you archived the installer, would result in a success.
Click to expand...
This is why I think an Installer for IE10 will still work after the fact but Windows 10 may still try to uninstall it. Too much of windows IS Internet Explorer just without the browser. It is called .NET They can't remove all of that without a ground-up rewrite of Windows. There are third party Powershell scripts that already can "remove" IE.
 
@Markverhyden

No one (at least no fully sighted and not otherwise disabled individual) probably has more familiarity with Microsoft's various accessibility-related contacts.

That being said, Microsoft has shown a firm commitment to increasing accessibility on a continuous basis, but this issue isn't about that in any meaningful sense. It's about people desperately clinging to long out of support websites that the actual creators of said websites have not touched in years rather than doing what makes the most sense: walking away. And I don't say that lightly or dismissively.

I've seen a number of things that were very helpful (not produced by Microsoft) come and go, particularly Captcha solvers, over the years. Certain people are still on an ancient "encased in amber" extended support version of Firefox so they can use one called Webvisum. There was another, Rumola, that was for Chromium based browsers that's disappeared on the Chrome web store, but that still was functioning in Chrome instances where it had been installed.

And so long as those things can be used "with zero effort" past their ends of life it makes sense. But during that period one should be looking, and looking hard, for alternatives if such exist, or how to wean off if they don't. Eventually, no matter what sort of pretzels you twist yourself into, those things are going to become well and truly dead and impossible to access.

My constant statement, with or without regard to accessibility-specific programs and/or features, is: The only constant is change and nowhere is change so constant as in the world of computing. You're not doing yourself any favors, at all, by clinging to a corpse, and that's what a lot of folks do, and with a vigor I really cannot understand. If that energy were directed either to finding alternatives or finding alternate methods of doing things a lot of constant stress could be avoided.

Attempting to hold on long past the time it makes sense is like standing under the sword of Damocles and begging it to go straight into the top of your skull.
 
Diggs said:
So the question I haven't seen answered is if IE Mode in Edge supports ActiveX? I assume not or else this wouldn't be such a big deal.
Click to expand...
No... it doesn't. The feature has been available for ages, and once New Edge showed up, ActiveX was gone. I don't expect that to change. Original Edge IE mode was basically IE in a tab, that's dead now though which is nice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

xrobwx71
MS reduces monthly LCU update size
Replies
0
Views
121
xrobwx71
xrobwx71
lan101
Bitlocker stopping windows password reset
2
Replies
26
Views
1K
britechguy
britechguy
HCHTech
Windows 11 - Outlook display issue after latest office update?
2
Replies
22
Views
1K
NETWizz
NETWizz
PaulTech
Block update to Windows 11
Replies
17
Views
3K
Sky-Knight
Sky-Knight
JohnDoe1980
Windows 10 Stuck on 1909
Replies
5
Views
990
A V
A V
Back
Top