[Numbat]

How can I turn off Windows updates? There appears to be no way to do it. I have turned them off from the Control panel (Automatic Updates) but the updating process continues.

[jbm1991]

are you on vista or XP?

and why would you want to turn them off? they do no harm

[Numbat]

I am on XP.

I turn them off because I am on dial-up and they 'Hog' the line. As to whether they do harm or not is contentious. Whatever, I want them off.

Problem is they will not turn off.

[midders]

Click Start
Right-click on My Computer
Select Properties...
Click the Automatic Updates tab
Cick the Turn Off Automatic Updates radio button
Click OK

Alternatively, you can just stop/disable the automatic updates service from services.msc; this is quite useful to temporarily stop the "You must restart your computer" annoyances after installing updates when in the middle of something else.

Sláinte

midders

[Numbat]

Tried services.msc. Windows Update did not show in the list.

[stantley]

The name of the service is Automatic Updates. If you're going disable that you can also disable Background Intelligent Transfer Service, a related service.

If you need to use Windows Update in the future you can just turn them back on.

[Numbat]

Looks like I may have succeeded in stopping the updates. Went to services.msc and Automatic Updates and closed them down. Finally, that annoying screen that comes up everytime I boot up and tells me the Update connection has failed (not plugged in to the line, of course) has stopped nagging me.

Thank you everyone.