Has been updating for 15 minutes. I specifically force shut it down to avoid the updates

You're right that Microsoft has made this intentionally difficult. Windows 11 is designed as a "service" now —Microsoft wants everyone on the latest version for security and uniformity. For home users, there is no "supported" way to permanently stop updates . But there are several effective workarounds, depending on which edition of Windows you have.

Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.

Enable policies like "Configure Automatic Updates" and set it to 2 - Notify for download and notify for install.