Stopping Windows Update

The following is in response to a long thread that got overly complicated
and involved about using file renaming tactics on protected files to stop
Windows from automatically updating.

I'm reposting this so that it may benefit others looking for a simpler way.

Here's the steps to do it:

1. Stop the Windows Update service in services.msc
2. Set Windows Update entry to Disabled
3. Select the "Log On" tab on that same window and click the button for
"This
account:" and then enter .\Guest (period backslash Guest) and make
sure the password is blank. Click Apply.
4. Acknowledge the message that .\Gust has been assigned to the logon
credentials.
5. Done

That stops the service from starting because the account to start it has
been changed. Now when you try to manually force an update you will get a
message in the Windows Update status that "There were some problems
installing updates, ....etc.."

When it also tries to Auto Update, an error message will be logged in the
system logs and that lets you know it's working if you want to look in the
logs.

To reset this so windows updates again, change the Startup type back to
Auto, go to the Log On tab and select the button for Local System account,
Apply and then Start the service. The update service is back to normal.


Bob S.