Have you updated your computer to Windows 10 yet?
By using Windows 10 your internet bandwidth and data plan is being used to help complete strangers download their updates.If you weren't aware - consider this a public service announcement.In some ways, Windows Update Delivery Optimization (WUDO) sounds really cool:Windows Update Delivery Optimization lets you get Windows updates and Windows Store apps from sources in addition to Microsoft. This can help you get updates and apps more quickly if you have a limited or unreliable Internet connection. And if you own more than one PC, it can reduce the amount of Internet bandwidth needed to keep all of your PCs up-to-date.In other words, it sounds pretty neat. Chances are that you may have more than one PC in your household, and why should they all have to drag an update down in its entirety from the internet?But here's the next bit:Delivery Optimization also sends updates and apps from your PC to other PCs on your local network or PCs on the Internet.Yes, you read that right. WUDO doesn't just look for computers on your internal network, but - just as if you were downloading a torrent of a Hollywood movie - it will try to find other computers on the internet which are running Windows 10, and try to get parts of the download from them too.And, of course, it could be your Windows 10 PC that is giving a helping hand to those complete strangers' PCs by *uploading* the data that they are looking for.If you are an altruistic fellow, you might have no problem with this at all. But if your internet connectivity is metered or capped with a data plan, then you may be unhappy at the thought of it being gobbled up just to make Microsoft's job of distributing updates easier.Naturally, as seems to be the way of the world these days, you don't opt in to WUDO. Microsoft has already turned it on by default for you.
Fortunately, you can change the settings if you're not happy with how Microsoft has decided it should use your internet connection:
1. Go to Start, then Settings > Update & security > Windows Update, and then select Advanced options.
2. On the Advanced options page, select Choose how updates are delivered. From there you can use the toggle to turn Delivery Optimization off (you will still be able to get updates and apps from Windows Update and from the Windows Store), or disable WUDO's default setting of potentially downloading updates from, and offering them to, PCs anywhere else on the internet.
