Windows 11 downloads terabytes of "Updates" in two days.

[Mr_Engineer]

Doesn't look right, could be a corruption within Windows / Windows update, or your machine is compromised.

Maybe try to do a repair on Windows?

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

This screenshot is from right now on the second fresh installation.

Based on the same install media? Perhaps the corruption runs deeper than the installation.

 

[Bill_Bright]

a reboot did not fix this, read the posts before.

I did. Doesn't matter.

What is obnoxious is users constantly lambasting and blaming Microsoft for not being 100% perfect 100% of the time - even for what appears to be a one-off problem. Because, it couldn't possibly be a driver issue, a corrupt file issue, or God forbid, a user issue.

 

[unwind-protect]

I did. Doesn't matter.

What is obnoxious is users constantly lambasting and blaming Microsoft for not being 100% perfect 100% of the time - even for what appears to be a one-off problem. Because, it couldn't possibly be a driver issue, a corrupt file issue, or God forbid, a user issue.

Honestly this looks more like a MS screwup.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Honestly this looks more like a MS screwup.

It could be. I didn't say it wasn't.

But wouldn't it make sense if this was a MS screw up that there would be many more users complaining about terabytes of data being downloaded all of a sudden? I note many users are still on metered connections. What are the odds it would only be affecting one person? Now granted, most users don't bother looking at router stats. But I suspect if that sort of data was being downloaded, there would be users (especially those with multiple computers/users in the home) complaining about their streaming services buffering, or on-line game performance lagging or other network latency issues. Where are they?

Again, is it fair to expect Microsoft could test for every possible scenario of the 10s and 100s of millions of unique configurations out there? And again, that is even assuming this really is a MS problem. I don't see any proof of that. Do you?

 

[unwind-protect]

How many people would notice lots of volume used in short order?

 

[Psychoholic]

If you use gamepass on windows, i have noticed it appears that games and updates to games in gamepass app seem to count towards the "system and windows update" number in data usage.

EDIT: by gamepass i meant the xbox app on windows.

 

[Bill_Bright]

How many people would notice lots of volume used in short order?

I don't see how anyone could answer that. It is too general a question that involves way too many variables. For example

How do you connect to your network?​

What speed does your ISP provide?​

What are you doing at that point in time?​

How many other users and computers/devices are on your network and what are they doing at that point in time?​

If you live by yourself, have a fast internet connection, and only one computer connected, you may not notice. If you have a herd of teenagers in the house, all streaming YouTube or TikTok, and another kid watching Netflix while you are trying to stream Roku, you might notice - even if connected via fiber.

 

[R0H1T]

How many people would notice lots of volume used in short order?

Considering many ISP's usually have a FUP limit on home networks I'd say quite a few!

 

[unwind-protect]

It is still an endless loop, one executed without wait time between interations.

It is hard to imagine that this is not Microsoft's fault.

 

[Onasi]

Might be connected to MS messing up the mitigation for the ongoing issue of failing installation/updates with the latest KBs?
This one, to be precise:

Windows 11, version 24H2 known issues and notifications

View announcements and review known issues and fixes for Windows 11, version 24H2

learn.microsoft.com

Can possibly be responsible for said endless request/fail loop.

 

[Bill_Bright]

It is hard to imagine that this is not Microsoft's fault.

Then why is this the only report? Why are there not 1000s and 1000s of complaints? Why isn't ARS Technica, The Register, GeekWire, TechCrunch, PCMag, Wired, and others reporting this? Surely, if this was Microsoft's fault, the problem would be widespread.

Why can't it be a corrupt or incorrect BIOS setting or firmware bug? A corrupt HW driver? A NIC problem? A cable problems? A drive problem? If packets are dropped anywhere along the line, there will be a request to resend - and that could certainly look like an endless loop to some. I note drivers are the responsibility of the device makers, not Microsoft's. Network protocols on the receiver end are not Microsoft's responsibilities.

It is not hard to imagine that some would automatically blame Microsoft. They get blamed when the sun refuses to shine. But in this case, with this apparently being the only report on the entire planet, it is hard to imagine this could be Microsoft's fault - this time.

This one, to be precise:

Huh? I may be missing something but I see nothing there related to the problem reported here by the OP about TBs of data being downloaded. On top of that, in your link it clearly says (my bold underline added),

Please note, this only occurs when utilizing media - such as CD and USB flash drives - to install Windows 11, version 24H2. This issue does not occur for devices where the October 2024 security update or the November 2024 security updates are installed via Windows Update or the Microsoft Update Catalog website.

 

[droopyRO]

Didn't they re-enable that spying thing after they promised to disable it? What was it total recall, lol that's the tool to steal your info after they used recall.

AFAIK it's only on if you use the AI features. I checked mine and it's off, with 24H2 and all updates done.

 

[R-T-B]

Then why is this the only report? Why are there not 1000s and 1000s of complaints? Why isn't ARS Technica, The Register, GeekWire, TechCrunch, PCMag, Wired, and others reporting this? Surely, if this was Microsoft's fault, the problem would be widespread.

Why can't it be a corrupt or incorrect BIOS setting or firmware bug? A corrupt HW driver? A NIC problem? A cable problems? A drive problem? If packets are dropped anywhere along the line, there will be a request to resend - and that could certainly look like an endless loop to some. I note drivers are the responsibility of the device makers, not Microsoft's. Network protocols on the receiver end are not Microsoft's responsibilities.

It is not hard to imagine that some would automatically blame Microsoft. They get blamed when the sun refuses to shine. But in this case, with this apparently being the only report on the entire planet, it is hard to imagine this could be Microsoft's fault - this time.


Huh? I may be missing something but I see nothing there related to the problem reported here by the OP about TBs of data being downloaded. On top of that, in your link it clearly says (my bold underline added),

I would still remake my install media to rule it out.

 

[Shrek]

Now that I think about it, about a week ago I had a Windows 11 update that was not competing, a restart fixed that; so maybe the problem was seen by more than just a few people.

 

[Onasi]

I would still remake my install media to rule it out.

Agreed. @GerKNG mentioned using the Media Creation Tool - I assume he meant in both re-installs. I would try using Rufus instead and pulling the latest image, either via its own tools or maybe sourcing it from, say, massgrave. The one with Dec KBs included. See if it helps or not to definitively rule out this issue.

 

[Shakallia]

over the last couple days i built a new system with a fresh copy of windows 11 24H2 (completely unmodified OS installed from a media creation tool USB Stick)
i had constantly lags in Multiplayer games, youtube dropped down to 480p and when i had the same issues on my phone and laptop i decided to look into my router and i saw non stop 100% bandwidth usage from my PC.
Well... Now i know why: Servicehost: Windows Update downloads 24/7 no matter if i restart my PC, cut and reset the internet connection, close the service manually or look for updates (windows is up to date)
i re-downloaded windows, made a second USB Stick, installed Windows and it imediately starts to download literally thousands of gigabytes of data in the last ~36 Hours.
what the hell is going on with Windows?!
This screenshot is from right now on the second fresh installation.
View attachment 377620
View attachment 377622

Where did you get the OS from ? Maybe the pc you used to download the iso file was compromised, and you downloaded the iso from what appeared to be a genuine Microsoft website but in fact wasn't.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I would still remake my install media to rule it out.

To rule what out? Using local installation media would not isolate or prove it was Microsoft pushing out, and was the cause of terabytes of data moving through the router - which is the claim here.

 

[chrcoluk]

Set it to notify only, and thank me later, you perhaps only get a benefit from a automated download if your internet connection is trash.

 

[unwind-protect]

Then why is this the only report? Why are there not 1000s and 1000s of complaints? Why isn't ARS Technica, The Register, GeekWire, TechCrunch, PCMag, Wired, and others reporting this? Surely, if this was Microsoft's fault, the problem would be widespread.

Why can't it be a corrupt or incorrect BIOS setting or firmware bug? A corrupt HW driver? A NIC problem? A cable problems? A drive problem?

It can be any of that. The point is that Microsoft should under no circumstances go into an endless loop without wait between iterations.

And nobody said that this problem is universal. Obviously it is not.

If packets are dropped anywhere along the line, there will be a request to resend - and that could certainly look like an endless loop to some. I note drivers are the responsibility of the device makers, not Microsoft's. Network protocols on the receiver end are not Microsoft's responsibilities.

That's not how TCP works.

 

[R-T-B]

To rule what out? Using local installation media would not isolate or prove it was Microsoft pushing out, and was the cause of terabytes of data moving through the router - which is the claim here.

To rule out he's using media without image errors. Please remember we aren't all here to attack MS. There is no reason to be so defensive.

 

[Laurijan]

can a botnet router cause this? try resetting router/modem and put in custom user name and good password

 

[Melvis]

I'm just impressed of your upload speed!

 

[Dr. Dro]

Looks like what's happening here is that your machine is acting as a Windows Update seed because you have ample bandwidth and high uptime? To reduce strain on their servers and make the update process faster, Windows Update has had a P2P mechanism very similar to BitTorrent since Windows 10.

To disable, open Settings app > Windows Update > Advanced Options > Delivery Optimization, disable "Allow download from other PCs", then click in Advanced Options (again, under this Advanced Options menu) and disable the update seed options, also applying an upload limit so Windows no longer seeds updates to other regional users and other machines in your household. Instructions should hold for both Windows 10 and Windows 11 users.

Can also try clearing the software distribution cache to reset the Windows Update system entirely?

net stop wuauserv
net stop trustedinstaller
cd /d %windir%
rd /s SoftwareDistribution (Y)
shutdown -r -t 0

can a botnet router cause this? try resetting router/modem and put in custom user name and good password

Not a bug or security issue, it's a feature? Or am I missing something?

 

[A Computer Guy]

This happened to me once on Windows 10. That is exactly what it was, getting hung up on an update that would not install, I was going to say it was the strangest thing ever, but looks like you found it too.

But Terabytes.. mine didn't try that hard lol..

Getting stuck on windows updates recently happened to me as well. I was using an older Windows 10 19xx USB stick and the update would never complete. The 22H2 USB installer was fine.

Looks like what's happening here is that your machine is acting as a Windows Update seed because you have ample bandwidth and high uptime? To reduce strain on their servers and make the update process faster, Windows Update has had a P2P mechanism very similar to BitTorrent since Windows 10.

To disable, open Settings app > Windows Update > Advanced Options > Delivery Optimization, disable "Allow download from other PCs", then click in Advanced Options (again, under this Advanced Options menu) and disable the update seed options, also applying an upload limit so Windows no longer seeds updates to other regional users and other machines in your household. Instructions should hold for both Windows 10 and Windows 11 users.

Can also try clearing the software distribution cache to reset the Windows Update system entirely?

net stop wuauserv
net stop trustedinstaller
cd /d %windir%
rd /s SoftwareDistribution (Y)
shutdown -r -t 0

Not a bug or security issue, it's a feature? Or am I missing something?

Oof, users are not just beta testers these days but also a cog of the supply chain infrastructure. ( ...and a data collection node )