How to stop wimdows 10 from stealing your bandwidth

 Windows 10 steals your internet bandwidth without your knowledge to share updates with others. This option is enabled by default in Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro. You can turn this feature off in your update settings. Read more to know detailed instructions.

Long back, fossBytes reported that Windows 10 will be downloading and distributing updates to others using peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol. Now that Windows 10 is released, and you can grab with even without any upgrade icon, Windows 10 is busy using your internet connection to distribute updates to other people on the Internet. Actually, Microsoft has done this to reduce the stress on its servers.  Earlier, it was expected that this feature will only work for PCs on your local networks.

Windows 10 steals your internet bandwidth due to a feature called Windows Update Delivery Optimization. It is enabled in Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro versions. Windows 10 Enterprise and Education have this feature enabled, but it works only for the PCs on your own local network.

Just like torrents, everyone having Windows 10 on their PCs, by default distributes some updates to the people who need it. This makes the update process for other fast and less troublesome for Microsoft. Using your data connection to share updates may seem like a good gesture, but what if your data connection isn’t unlimited?

Also read: How to Regain Up To 20GB Disk Space After Windows 10 Upgrade

For those who are having a limited data connection, this feature will use lots of your allotted data and you won’t even realize it. Microsoft has said that this feature will only share updates and it won’t download or send any personal data.

Windows 10 steals your Internet Bandwidth, How to Stop It?

Follow these simple steps to turn off the Windows Update Delivery Optimization feature in Windows 10 to save your data:

• Search for “Windows update settings” in the Start menu and click on the desktop app.

• Under the “Windows Update”, find and click on “Advanced options.”

• Now under “Choose how updates are installed” click “Choose how updates are delivered.”

• Disable the toggle under “Updated from more than one place.”

This looks a great feature for getting updates quickly and sharing updates with your local network PCs if you are running Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education. But knowing that Windows 10 steals your Internet bandwidth on Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro versions, and spends your data without your knowledge, it doesn’t feel that great.

How to disable windows 10 upgrade permanently with just one click

If you are a Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 user, who don't want to upgrade to Windows 10 now or anytime soon, you might be sick of Microsoft constantly pestering you to upgrade your OS.

Aren't you?

With its goal to deploy Windows 10 on over 1 Billion devices worldwide, Microsoft is becoming more aggressive to convince Windows 7 and 8.1 users to upgrade to its newest operating system, and it is getting harder for users to prevent the OS being installed.

But if you're worried that this out of control Windows 10 upgrade process will force you into downloading an unwanted OS; I have an easier solution to block Windows 10 upgrade on your PCs.

A new free tool, dubbed Never10, provides the user a one-click solution to disable Windows 10 upgrade until the user explicitly gives permission to install Windows 10.

Never10 has been developed by Steve Gibson, the well-known software developer and founder of Gibson Research, which is why the tool is also known as "Gibson's Never10."

How to Disable Windows 10 Upgrade on Your PCs

1. Go to Gibson's Never10 official site and click on the Download.
2. Once downloaded, the program detects if the upgrade to Windows 10 is enabled or disabled on your system and then shows a pop-up. If enabled, Click 'Disable Win10 Upgrade' button.
3. You’ll again see a pop-up that now shows Windows 10 upgrade is disabled on your system, with two buttons to 'Enable Win10 Upgrade' and 'Exit.' Click on Exit button.

That's it, and you have successfully disabled Windows 10 Upgrade on your PC.

Here's the kicker:

The best part of this tool is that you don't have to install an application on your PC to do this. Gibson’s Never 10 is an executable. So you just need to run it, and it doesn’t install anything on your computer. You can delete it when you're done.

"The elegance of this 'Never 10' utility is that it does not install ANY software of its own. It simply and quickly performs the required system editing for its user," Gibson writes on his page about the new utility.

According to Gibson, Never10 will be a great help to inexperienced users while advanced users will likely appreciate the fact that no additional software is installed and will be able to refer their family and friends to this easy-to-use utility.

For more technical details on how this tool works, you can head on to this link.

Unlike other available Windows 10 blocker tools, Never10 blocks the Windows 10 upgrade, but at the same time, the tool allows you to start the update process in case you change your mind, according to Windows watcher Paul Thurrott.

However, the primary purpose of Gibson's Never10 is to prevent Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 operating system from being upgraded to Windows 10. As Gibson says:

"Many users of Windows 7 and 8.1 are happy with their current version of Windows and have no wish to upgrade to Windows 10." 

"There are many reasons for this, but among them is the fact that Windows 10 has become quite controversial due to Microsoft's evolution of their Windows OS platform into a service which, among other things, aggressively monitors and reports on its users' activities."

Moreover, just a month ago, Microsoft was caught displaying unsolicited advertisements on its Windows 10 users' desktops.

These reasons are enough for many users to stay on their previous versions of the Windows operating system.

How to turn windows 10 lock screen ads off

Although the ads are not as annoying as the Windows 10 privacy concerns related to the way Microsoft collects your personal data, the good news is that you can turn the ads OFF.

Here's How to Turn the Ads OFF

The advertisements are because of the Windows Spotlight feature in your Personalization settings.

If you don't want to see these intrusive ads, follow the steps given below to disable Windows Spotlight:

• Open the Start Menu and look for 'Lock Screen Settings.'
• Under 'Background,' Choose either 'Picture' or 'Slideshow,' instead of Windows Spotlight.
• Now, Scroll down to 'Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen' and uncheck this box.

The advertisements are turned ON for your lock screen by default, which is definitely a clever way to offer companies to reach their customers, without mentioning the word 'advertisements' to the Windows users.

As I previously said: Nothing comes for Free, as "Free" is just a relative term. Everything comes with its own price.

As warned last year, Microsoft also started pushing Windows 10 upgrades onto its user's computers much harder by re-categorizing Windows 10 as a "Recommended Update" in Windows Update, instead of an "optional update."