Windows 10 updates are becoming a major bugbear. In my own lab environment I see Windows 10 updates bring my Internet connection to a standstill as a PC or VM downloads Windows updates utilising every possible bit of bandwidth. We can manually overcome this by using the router to manage bandwidth on the fly, throttling that machine for the duration of the update, but in a few hours or days another instance will do the same thing unless I manually update them before they automatically start downloading in the background.
I see precisely the same situation in production environments at client sites - we'll get complaints of poor Internet performance and analysis will show a machine in the throes of a Windows update, that can't be stopped and isn't even acknowledged in the Windows Update module.
Additionally, I thought Windows 10 was able to download updates from LAN peers? I have *never* seen this work in reality - either automatic or manual updates always pull the whole update from the Internet, which can be seen by monitoring network activity. Sure, WSUS can be configured for local delivery, but I'm talking about the 'out-of-the-box' configuration.
I understand the rationale behind background updates that users can't turn off anymore, but Windows Update is making machines (and whole networks) unusable - a certain amount of control needs to be returned. Even if it's a checkbox - 'I'm on a slow Internet connection, enable Windows Update dynamic bandwidth throttling', where Windows will test the connection and then only utilise a quarter of available download bandwidth for automatic updates (and can re-check available bandwidth every time it runs Update). Users still can't turn updates off, but they can regain the use of their network while it's running (rather than having to disconnect that machine from the Internet until they're finished their Internet use for the day).
And please, *PLEASE* fix LAN peer downloading, so Windows Update can pull a copy of Update files from any other computer that has completed its updates. It is monumentally stupid and wasteful that every Windows 10 machine continues to pull 100% of its updates from Microsoft servers.
