Is Your Bandwidth Dying? Windows 10 Could Be Culprit

Has anyone else noticed an especially slow network lately? Well, according to Senior Technical Instructor, Doug Bassett, if you’re not using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), “It’s not you, it’s not crazy, it’s not malware, it’s just Microsoft pushing out Windows 10 to as many people as possible.”

Many IT admins out there have reported that their networks slowed to a crawl when those files were automatically pushed to their computers and none are happy about it. Especially those who deal with hundreds of computers on a limited amount of bandwidth.

In a statement from Microsoft, “For individuals who have chosen to receive automatic updates through Windows Update, we help upgradable devices get ready for Windows 10 by downloading the files they’ll need if they decide to upgrade. When the upgrade is ready, the customer will be prompted to install Windows 10 on the device.” How thoughtful of them.

In the meantime, every computer on your network could be pulling somewhere between 2 to 4.3 gigabites of unwelcome data whether or not you actually decide to upgrade to Windows 10. These files are reportedly being stored on the Local Disk in a hidden folder that’s called $Windows.~BT.

So, what can be done about this? Well, Doug Bassett recommends that you use WSUS. Unfortunately, not all of us can simply do that, so his other work-around is to, “Either set a group policy to turn off automatic updates,” or “go and manually do it. Hopefully you don’t have 10,000 machines trying to settle this stuff up.”

Good luck! We hope you don’t have 10,000 machines to do by hand either!