How to Disable Automatic App Updates For Windows 10 Store Apps

How to Disable Automatic App Updates For Windows 10 Store Apps

If you happen to be a Windows 10 Pro user then it’s only right and proper that you expect to have a little more power and functionality than those who are interacting with a Home version of Microsoft’s latest operating system. After all, what’s the point in going Pro if you don’t get a little more to sweeten the deal? Home users have already accepted their fate of being forced into having Windows 10 and Windows Store app updates automatically installed on their machines, but Pro users will be delighted to learn that the same rule doesn’t apply to them.

It’s fairly safe to say that large companies, such as Microsoft, often make some decisions that make sense to them but seem entirely obscure to the end-user. Not allowing users of Windows 10 Home edition to turn off automatic app updates seems like one of those bureaucratic decisions that we’ll never entirely understand.

Let’s not dwell on what is not, and concentrate on what actually is, by getting right into using the Windows 10 Pro native settings to quickly disable automatic updates for Windows 10 apps installed from Windows Store, and take back control off when or if an app gets an update.

Step 1: Launch the native Windows Store app that’s embedded within Windows 10.

Step 2: Click on your own individual profile icon that sits proudly in the top-right hand corner of the Windows Store app.

Step 3: Select the Settings option from the resulting contextual menu.

Step 4: Locate the ‘App updates‘ heading and use the toggle under the ‘Update apps automatically‘ header to turn the updates On or Off.

So there we have it, a simple, time effective way to take back a little control over how updates for Windows 10 apps are installed. For all of you Windows 10 Home owners out there who are cursing Microsoft over this decision, you have our deepest sympathies. For the time being it seems that the only way to actually introduce this simple functionality into your Windows 10 experience is to hand over an additional $100 to Satya Nadella’s company to upgrade Home to Windows 10 Pro.

Rather than fork out purely for this little ‘feature,’ we’d probably recommend exercising some patience and seeing if Microsoft changes its stance on this in a future update.

How to Set Windows 10 File Explorer To Open This PC Instead Of Quick Access

How to Set Windows 10 File Explorer To Open This PC Instead Of Quick Access

Windows 10 isn’t hugely changed from previous versions of Windows in that it still contains a lot of the familiar preferences and configuration abilities. Granted, Microsoft have provided the whole aesthetic with a much needed lick of paint, but the underlying functionality remains familiar to long-time users with the odd exception of a new feature here and there. File Explorer, one of the most widely used applications within Windows, now defaults to serving up access to most commonly used files and folders when opened, rather than showing the contents of the whole installed PC. We’re going to take a look at how to change that.

If you’d rather open up File Explorer and get an immediate look at “This PC” rather than the limited “Quick Access” view by default, then you’d be glad to know that it’s fairly easy to do so through the Windows 10 File Explorer preferences. Follow the simple steps below to make the needed change.

Step 1: To begin, launch a new instance of File Explorer.
Step 2: Click the View tab in the ribbon.
Step 3: Select Options from the available selections.

Step 4: Make sure that you are in the General tab. This is the default, so unless you’ve navigated away from it you should still be in it.

Step 5: Next to the heading “Open File Explorer to:“, click the drop-down box to reveal a set of options.

Step 6: Choose the “This PC” option.

Step 7: Select OK to confirm the selection and exit.

File Explorer should now display contents of “This PC” rather than the default “Quick Access” view whenever you launch it.

Now, when you choose to invoke an instance of File Explorer you’ll be provided with the “This PC” glance which gives access to connected drives, the computer internal hard drive and files and folders that can be navigated at will. In all honesty, this is probably the view that is immediately recognizable to most users from previous versions of Windows.

How to Force Download Windows 10 Free Upgrade

How to Force Download Windows 10 Free Upgrade, Tutorial

Today is July 29, the day Microsoft launches final version of Windows 10. However unlike previous versions of Windows, Microsoft is doing a phase rollout of Windows 10 upgrade, which means not everyone will get the update on the same day.
But as they, where there’s a will, there is a way. And so if you are in the same boat as many others whose Windows 10 upgrade hasn’t automatically started downloading yet, you can follow the tutorial below to force Windows Update to download the update for you right now. I have personally tested this and can confirm it worked on my Surface Pro 3. There’s no reason why it won’t work for anyone of you on any other computer running Windows.

How to check if your PC isn’t already downloading the Windows 10 upgrade? Navigate to C:\ drive and see if it has a folder named $Windows.~BT (you may have to enable Hidden items to check this). If it is there, you are all set, but if it isn’t there, you will need to follow the instructions below to force Windows 10 downloading.

Ready? Lets do this!

Pre-requesites:

• Must be running genuine copy of either Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
• Must have all the previous updates installed from Windows Update.
• Make sure your PC meets all other Windows 10 requirements, you can check those here: How To Prepare Your PC For Windows 10 The Right Way [Guide].

Step 1: Make sure you have reserved your free copy of Windows 10. If you haven’t done this already, you can follow the instructions here on how to reserve your free Windows 10 upgrade.

Step 2: Run Windows Update, and make sure you are set to receive updates automatically.

Step 3: Navigate to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder and delete everything in this folder. Don’t worry, it wont ruin your system.

Step 4: Now run Command Prompt utility in Administrator mode. Simply search for ‘cmd’ from Start Menu/Screen, right click, and then click on run as administrator.

Step 5: Type this command and press enter: wuauclt.exe /updatenow.

Step 6: Now after a few minutes, check for updates in Windows Update. You should now see Windows 10 being downloaded on your PC. The size of this download will vary depending on the version of Windows you are currently running. Download time will also vary depending on the type and speed of Internet connection you have.

Step 7: Once the download is complete, it will start ‘Preparing for installation’ after which you can install the update.

Enjoy it !!!