I have a Windows 10 computer that is running software that I cannot service'ize. My problem is that I have followed every known process for disabling, discontinuing, or stopping Windows from auto updating/rebooting. None of them actually work. I've used policies, disabled the WU service, forced it to use disabled users with invalid creds, nothing works. Eventually, I will log in to find that I have the little orange update indicator informing me that I need to reboot my computer and install updates, or that it has already installed and rebooted and now my software isn't running anymore. I've actually gone to the length of writing a service that runs as Administrator which checks the WU service at 1Hz and immediately stops and disables the service if it's found to be in any other state but stopped/disabled. It also logs when the service goes live and has to be disabled. The logs never indicate a start/stop event.
Even that doesn't work. The updates are downloaded and installed anyway and the inevitable reboot that follows.
Either there is another service running somewhere or Windows simply ignores the WU service state and downloads the updates anyway. At this point, I'm not really sure how this is any different than having my machine hacked. Either way, I'm not really in control of it.
My question; Is there a way to block the updates using my network firewall? Are there certain ports? A certain root domain(*.updates.microsoft.com), etc?
I still need access to microsoft, I just don't want the frickin updates until I'm ready to install them myself.
