Tweaking Windows Update for Better Performance with Scripts

Okay, I'm not a big fan of Windows Update because it seems to pop up messages to annoy you and slows down performance. I also notice it loading up after boot up since it is one of the services that gets a delayed Automatic Start. It makes the hard drive thrash quite a bit while it loads.

However, it is a necessity so just can't turn it off completely. You have to update sometime. For me, I prefer to disable Windows Update until I actually want to check for updates. This avoids those damn pop ups and improves system performance.

What I've done is created some scripts that enable you to disable or startup Windows Update just by double-clicking a shortcut. When you double-click to disable, it actually disables the Windows Update service in Services.msc so it is completely off. When you double-click to start it up, the scripts turn the Windows Update services back to automatic and also loads the Windows Update control panel for you:

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For me, it takes less than 3 seconds for Windows Update to start or stop so it is pretty fast. I have attached the scripts I've created as a zip. The main portion of the code is in a file called EnDWU.vbs:

You don't have to know what the scripts mean to use them. Follow these installations to get it working:
[1] Unzip the attached zip.
[2] Place the shortcut you see on your desktop.
[3] Place the folder "Services" in C:\. If your hard drive is not C:\, you will have to change the drive letters in EnDWU.vbs and update the shortcut. DO NOT use a different directory name because something in Vista is still using the old 8.3 file naming convention. It was a *****.
[4] Right click on EnDWU.vbs and open it up. This is the file where you will have to update the drive letter if it is not C:\. If you need to do this, I recommend just using Notepads Replace feature to do it all at one go.
[5] Near the middle of the text in EnDWU are two variables: ShortCutNameforEnable, and ShortCutNameforDisable. Update the file path to the shortcut on the desktop for these two variables.
[6] Installation is complete. Double-click on the shortcut to see it work. Note that the name of the shortcut will change from "Windows Update Enabled" to "Windows Update Disabled" depend on the state of Windows Update.
[7] Remember that you need to double-click on the shortcut again after you finish using Windows Update so that you disable it.

I am using the scripts on my computer right now and I love the ease of use. You get the performance benefits of turning off Windows Update without the hassle of enabling it everytime you need it. I have only tested it Vista but it should work in XP if you find out if the Windows Update executable is wuapp.exe or not and correct it in EnDWU.vbs.

 

Lol. You coded that just for that.

 

Its worth it.
Also, the task taught me how to script in vbs since I haven't used it before. The code is also useful as a template for disabling and enabling other services quickly. You could set it up to disable all the server network services when you are away from the office and easily enable them when you need it with just a double-click. I will leave that as an exercise for the student.

With the knowledge of how to script, I can definitely automate my computer much more. I will play around with it to see what else I can tweak.

 

While I'm not actually interested in this particular script, you've got me wondering... can you run these .vbs scripts on a stock Vista installation, or do you need to install something first? Because this sure beats batch files....

 

No need to install anything unless you need to use the DevCon command to manipulate hardware devices. It will work on both XP and Vista. You just have to make sure that the location of the files you are working with is correct. Scripting is built into the OS. The ones above use visual basic.

 

Thanks.

Do you (personally) use any special program to create them (such as VB Express or something) or do you just use a standard text editor?

 

I used Notepad because I don't have anything better installed at the moment. Definitely use something like VB Express so you can go to the line and column number straight away when you get an error message from the script execution. Its a pain counting lines in NotePad.

 

Thanks again Bart.

 

So I've been do some more tweaking of the services in Windows since I now have scripts that can easily let me disable/enable them. Before, I hesitated to disable some services, as recommended by www.blackviper.com, because I did not know if I would need them in the future or if I would remember what to turn on to get things working again.

In the script for my DVD drive, I altered it so that it also disabled the LightScribe and CyberLink RichVideo services. These are not standard Windows services but they are very common.

For networking, I'm working on grouping all the services I think I will have the slightest chance of using in the next year or so together. Its about half done. The biggest concern for me is if I'll remember what to enable for file and printer sharing a few 6 months down the road so this will be an important file.

With all the tweaking I've done, I'm down to 32 processes at startup. And one of those processes is a Vista start bar preview resizer. I have two more services that I think I can disable through my scripts so this number will be coming down. After startup, I'm consuming just 450 mb of ram out of my 2 Gb.

Shut down speed has been dramatically improved. I'm down to 8-10 seconds for a full shutdown from the moment I click ok to the moment everything powers off. Startup time has also improved but not as much as I like. It was originally about 1 minute to 1 minute 10 seconds for my startup (from hitting power button to a usuable desktop). This has come down to around 50 seconds. I don't think the startup time will improve much since the BIOS is taking about 22 seconds to do its thing so Vista is only left with about 28 seconds.