Windows 10 bypassing WSUS

Question

_{Thursday, December 14, 2017 5:24 AM}

Hello,

I originally posted this on the MS Community forum and they suggested I post here.

I have a WSUS server (Windows Server 2008 R2) running in a virtual environment at home so it is not always active.

My PCs (virtual and physical) are setup to use this so I only have to download patches once over my slow and quota limited internet connection. But the PCs are not part of a domain and have been setup with registry entries rather than policies (see below for settings).

This has worked fine for previous versions of windows (8.1, 7, XP) and also works for my Win 10 Pro PCs . . . when the WSUS server is active.

If the WSUS server is inactive the older versions of windows reported errors connecting to it but not Win 10 Pro, it doesn't report any error but seems to go directly to Microsofts Windows Update.

My justification for this statement is that I do not download the feature updates to my WSUS server (being a 2008 server it is incapable of handling them even if I wanted it to), yet the feature updates have been turning up in the Windows 10 Update screen.

My Win 10 systems are still 1703 but the feature upgrade to 1709 is turning up, given my limited download quota this is something I manage manually. I don't know if the issue occurred with prior builds of Win 10 as I've only recently noticed it.

Have I missed a setting or will Win 10 always revert to using the MS Windows Update site if the configured server is not available?

Thanks in advance for any help.

*****

My WSUS Registry settings

*****

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"AcceptTrustedPublisherCerts"=dword:00000001
"ElevateNonAdmins"=dword:00000001
"TargetGroup"="Workstations"
"TargetGroupEnabled"=dword:00000000
"WUServer"="http://10.1.1.45:8530"
"WUStatusServer"="http://10.1.1.45:8530"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"AUOptions"=dword:00000002
"AutoInstallMinorUpdates"=dword:00000000
"DetectionFrequency"=dword:0000000a
"DetectionFrequencyEnabled"=dword:00000001
"NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers"=dword:00000001
"NoAutoUpdate"=dword:00000000
"RebootRelaunchTimeout"=dword:0000000a
"RebootRelaunchTimeoutEnabled"=dword:00000001
"RescheduleWaitTime"=dword:0000000a
"RescheduleWaitTimeEnabled"=dword:00000001
"ScheduledInstallDay"=dword:00000000
"ScheduledInstallTime"=dword:00000003
"UseWUServer"=dword:00000001
"AUPowerManagement"=dword:00000001
"IncludeRecommendedUpdates"=dword:00000001
"NoAUAsDefaultShutdownOption"=dword:00000001
"NoAUShutdownOption"=dword:00000001

All replies (3)

_{Friday, December 15, 2017 3:06 AM}

Hi,

Take a look directly at the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

You should see the keys WUServer and WUStatusServer which should have the the locations of the specific servers.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd939844%28WS.10%29.aspx

Disable Windows Creators Update is on the way notice

Run regedit to open the Registry Editor, type the following in its address bar and hit Enter:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings\

Right-click in the right panel, select New > DWORD (32 bit) and name it HideMCTLink. Now double-click on HideMCTLink and give it a value of 1.

A value of 1 disables the notification

A value of 0 enables the notification.

After a feature update is released, defer receiving it for this many days: 365

Hope it will be helpful to you

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
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_{Thursday, December 21, 2017 1:11 PM}

Hi,

Haven't received your message a few days, was your issue resolved?
I am proposing previous helpful replies as "Answered". Please feel free to try it and let me know the result. If the reply is helpful, please remember to mark it as answer which can help other community members who have same questions and find the helpful reply quickly.
Best regards,
Carl

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

_{Thursday, December 28, 2017 1:57 AM}

Thank you for the response, I'm sorry for not replying but Xmas was in the way :-)

As you can see in my original post the WUServer and WUStatusServer values were set for my server so that was not the issue.

I have added HideMCTLink to my registry but haven't seen a change yet.

On the advanced options for update I don't see a defer features option, I see a pause updates that will last only for up to 35 days. Is this an option on the 1703 Win 10 Professional edition of on the Enterprise edition? Mine is definitely the Professional 64bit edition.

I have also run a little script to delete any local patch files in case they are providing erroneous data (C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\.* and C:\Windows\System32\catroot2) and then rebooted.

But my original question remains. As WUServer and WUStatusServer are correctly set, and the feature upgrades cannot be downloaded to my WSUS server, why is Windows update bypassing my server to get the upgrades from the Internet.

*****************

Edit

I've just done a reinstall of Win 10 Pro using the 1703 media onto a Virtual PC. On this the defer upgrade options are available, all the version numbers between the instances match so there is something else awry.