How to Update Windows 11 With Limited Bandwidth Settings

Quick fix: Open Settings → Windows Update → Advanced options → Delivery Optimization → Advanced options. Set Absolute bandwidth for downloads and uploads to specific Mbps caps. Or set Percentage of measured bandwidth to 50% (background) and 70% (foreground). For metered connections: mark your Wi-Fi as metered to throttle automatically.

You’re on tethered phone Wi-Fi, capped DSL, or hotel internet with bandwidth limits. Windows Update wants to download a 4 GB cumulative update. Without throttling, it consumes your full bandwidth and you can’t use the connection. The fix: tell Windows about the limit so it self-throttles.

What causes this

Windows Update by default uses Delivery Optimization (DO) — a peer-to-peer-capable download manager that can pull updates from Microsoft CDN, local network peers, and internet peers. Without limits, DO maximizes bandwidth. Settings let you cap both background and foreground bandwidth, or restrict to specific sources.

For truly bandwidth-limited connections, marking the Wi-Fi as metered triggers Windows’s metered-connection behavior: feature updates pause, only critical security updates download, smaller payloads preferred.

Method 1: Cap bandwidth in Delivery Optimization settings

The standard route.

1. Open Settings → Windows Update → Advanced options → Delivery Optimization → Advanced options.
2. Under Download settings:
   • Limit how much bandwidth is used for downloading updates in the background: tick. Slider sets percentage of measured bandwidth. Set to 20–50%.
   • Limit how much bandwidth is used for downloading updates in the foreground: tick. Set to 50–70%.
3. Alternatively, pick Absolute bandwidth and enter specific Mbps values:
   • Background: 5 Mbps
   • Foreground: 10 Mbps
4. Under Upload settings (if you opted in to Internet peer-to-peer):
   • Monthly upload limit: set to 5 GB or less to prevent excessive upload.
5. Toggle off Allow downloads from other PCs if you don’t want peer-to-peer (saves bandwidth by relying only on Microsoft’s CDN).
6. For belt-and-suspenders: pick PCs on my local network only (LAN peer-to-peer) and disable internet peers.

This is the recommended setup.

Method 2: Mark the connection as metered

For automatic throttling and pause.

1. Open Settings → Network & internet → Wi-Fi.
2. Click your network name.
3. Toggle Set as metered connection On.
4. Effects of metered:
   • Feature updates pause unless explicitly approved.
   • Some Microsoft Store apps don’t auto-update.
   • OneDrive may pause sync.
   • Background app data is reduced.
   • Some telemetry is suppressed.
5. For Ethernet: Settings → Network & internet → Ethernet → [adapter] → Metered connection.
6. For cellular connections (Windows recognizes as metered by default): verify in Network & internet → Cellular → specific connection.
7. To set data usage caps: Network & internet → Advanced network settings → Data usage. Set monthly cap and alert percentage.

This is the right path for connections you always want throttled.

Method 3: Use specific update timing windows

For when you want full bandwidth at specific times only.

1. Open Settings → Windows Update → Active hours. Set Active hours to your normal use times (no updates during these times).
2. For predictable update schedule: enable Smart Active Hours via registry (see earlier article on Smart Active Hours).
3. For PCs that need updates only during specific weekly windows: use Group Policy (Pro/Enterprise) at Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Update → Configure Automatic Updates. Pick “Auto download and schedule the install” with specific day/time.
4. For Pro/Enterprise: set Specify deadline for automatic updates and restarts → allow 7+ days of deferral.
5. For PCs with planned downtime: pause updates entirely during the work week. Reset at the weekend. Pause maximum is 5 weeks via Settings.
6. For Group Policy → specify time-of-day windows when updates can install:

   gpedit.msc → Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Update → Schedule install time

This is the right path for users with predictable bandwidth availability.

How to verify the fix worked

• Open Settings → Network & internet → Advanced network settings → Data usage. Windows Update’s data usage during an update should stay within your cap.
• Run Get-DeliveryOptimizationStatus in PowerShell. Shows current bandwidth limits and usage stats.
• During an update, open Task Manager → Performance → Ethernet/Wi-Fi. The throughput should stay below your configured cap.

If none of these work

If Windows Update still saturates bandwidth despite caps, the cause may be: BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service): separately throttle BITS via Group Policy at Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → Network → Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) → Maximum network bandwidth used for background transfers. Set explicit Kbps. For OneDrive bandwidth: open OneDrive Settings → Network tab. Set Upload/Download rate manually. For game launchers: Steam, Epic, Battle.net each have bandwidth caps in their settings — configure separately. For Hyper-V / WSL2 image downloads: large — cap via Hyper-V Manager settings. Last resort — QoS rules at router: configure router to throttle Windows Update servers’ IPs. Look up Microsoft Update endpoints (msdn.microsoft.com publishes the list) and set QoS rules. For tethered phone connections specifically: many phones’ hotspot apps include built-in bandwidth caps and metering — set there too.

Bottom line: Delivery Optimization → Advanced options → set absolute Mbps or percentage caps. Mark connection as metered for automatic throttling. Schedule updates for off-peak times if bandwidth is critical.