Windows update

Posted byu/jetah

1 year ago

Block Windows Update with Firewall

Noticed many problems with miners having windows updates turned on or can't be turned off. If you have a firewall (software, hardware/pi-hole) then add *.microsoft.com and *.windowsupdate.com to the block list. This should completely prevent the OS from downloading and updating. It's possible an error is tossed and something bad happens, so try this on one test system first!

You'll have to search for your firewalls instructions to block the addresses. I'm sure community members can suggest some good open source firewalls if you want one.

If the host file still works, you can add the above to that and use 127.0.0.1 as the IP which should prevent access also (windows may skip the host file specifically to update).

This will prevent any access to microsoft's website also!

The list of URLs are taken from MS's support pages.

technet.microsoft.com

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

http://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com

https://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com

http://*.update.microsoft.com

https://*.update.microsoft.com

http://download.microsoft.com

http://test.stats.update.microsoft.com

http://ntservicepack.microsoft.com

http://*.windowsupdate.com