How do you prevent wuauserv (Windows Update Service) from restarting?

Question

Regarding:

net stop "windows update"

this works for a while but then the service starts again. What is restarting this service and how do I prevent it from doing so?

Answer 1

Stop it and disable it.

sc stop wuauserv
sc config wuauserv start= disabled

You will need to open command prompt as administrator or you will get "access denied." The space after the start= is mandatory, sc will complain if the space is omitted. It may be worth noting that any services, or programs, which depend upon a disabled service will themselves fail to start, or experience anomalous behavior.

Check the System event log for event ID 7036 from Service Control Manager for wuauserv entering running state. It's likely another service has wuauserv marked as a dependency and is starting it as needed.

Answer 2

Windows 8 have a Scheduled Task:

Task Scheduler Library
:---- Microsoft
      :---- Windows
            :---- Windows Update

There is a task: "Scheduled Start". Just right-click on it and choose Disable.

Answer 3

I haven't figured out what is restarting wuauserv or how to prevent it from restarting, but here is an AutoHotkey script that will periodically check and sop it.

#Persistent
interval = 180                  ; execution interval in seconds

Menu, Tray, Add                 ; divider line
Menu, Tray, Add, Execute Now, StopService
Menu, Tray, Default, Execute Now
timer_param := -1000 * interval

StopService:
    Run %comspec% /c "sc query wuauserv | find "1  STOPPED" & if errorlevel 1 sc stop wuauserv", , Hide
    time = %A_Now%
    time += %interval%, seconds
    FormatTime, time_string, %time%, Time
    Menu, Tray, Tip, Stop Windows Update Service`nNext Execution at %time_string%
    SetTimer, StopService, %timer_param%
    return

Answer 4

This is actually a comment on the jscott answer, but I don't have enough reputation to put it in the correct spot.

On Windows 10(20H2), create a task using an administrator account run whether the user is logged on or not that is triggered by an event in the system log from Service Control Manager with Event ID 7040(service has changed state, i.e. out of the disabled state) that runs a batch file with the two commands listed by jscott.

wuauserv changes from disabled on most days for me.

Answer 5

Go to run and type regedit

navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost

Double click netsvcs and look for the name of the service. In our case its wuauserv

Delete the keyword wuauserv and Press OK

Close the registry editor and restart

HTH

Answer 6

In 'Task Scheduler' go to Microsoft > Windows > WindowsUpdate In there is where I believe the 'windows update service' is started on boot