Windows 10 uses your bandwidth to send other people updates

[Pib]

This may have been mentioned in other threads (I did mention it already in another thread that was already getting pretty long), but maybe it's worth a separate topic since bandwidth here in Thailand ain't that great for some folks or you may have a metered 3G/4G connection....and there is also the question of whether you want your computer being used kinda like a torrent seedbox to feed Windows updates to other folks on the internet.

The Win 10 "default" setting is set to feed/relay Windows updates to other computers on the internet, but you can easily change that...turn it completely off or just set it to feed computers on "your" local network like your home network.

Please see this webpage (partial cut and pastes below) for more info and how to adjust/turn off the Win 10 setting.

Windows 10 launched on July 29 to much fanfare — it’s a free upgrade for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users — but along with the privacy issues, there’s another small thing you should check: by default, Windows 10 uses your internet connection to share updates with others across the internet.

The feature, called Windows Update Delivery Optimization is designed to help users get updates faster and is enabled by default in Windows 10 Home and Pro editions. Windows 10 Enterprise and Education have the feature enabled, but only for the local network.

It’s basically how torrents work: your computer is used as part of a peer to peer network to deliver updates faster to others. It’s a great idea, unless your connection is restricted.

[Roman51]

Another interesting information .. I've heard that Microsoft's latest OS spying on users without their consent. And now I read that without our knowledge also uses the Internet to send our people of other updates. I hope that Microsoft repent, because I will not tolerate (without my permission) to use my network connection, that isn't the fastest one. As well I will not tolerate free share of my private things on PC hard drive. Probably it's time to switch OS to Linux..

[jacnl2000]

Count to that the fact that some of todays most excellent anti-virus scanners are quite capable of offering much too quickly the suggestion to remove an incomplete update or remnants of an update while the update itself is still actually being busy.... when you allow a virus scanner to do just that then the machine will be very busy accomplishing nothing ... ( "Security update for ... ( KB ... ) ... is not totally removed Delete files ?" ) ... while the Windows Updates is simply waiting for a restart to install files ...

[Stray]

Wasn't aware of this, Pib.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Updates from more than one place now turned off!