Windows 10 Update offers a feature which can save a lot of bandwidth for Windows 10 computers connected in a network. Bandwidth is a cost for many, and when you have multiple computers, one is forced to download the update, and then manually update all of them. In this post, I will share how you can download Windows 10 updates from a local network.
How to Download Windows 10 Updates from Local Network
When setting up delivery optimization for Windows 10, you have two options. You can set the computer to download Windows updates from PCs on the local network or from PCs on the internet. While the later still count against bandwidth, the former is what we will talk about here.
The option to download the update from other PC is nothing but a P2P (Peer to Peer) model of delivery updates. It is using almost the same technology used by torrents to download and distribute files.
- Go to Available under Settings > Update and Recovery > Delivery Optimization
- Toggle on the Allow downloads from other PC’s
- Choose the radio button option which says PC’s on my local network.
When this is turned on, your PC will also send parts of previously downloaded Windows updates, and apps to PCs on your local network.
It is an exciting move from Microsoft as it will speed up update not only IT but also for every home which has multiple Windows 10 PCs. It will save a lot of bandwidth and time, especially when the scope is on the local network.
Improve Apps Installation Time
Not only the Windows Update, but this feature will also let you download apps as well. Imagine if one of your PCs already have an app, your Windows Laptop can straight forward download apps from there instead of connecting to the internet to download.
What this means is that this feature in Windows 10 will make will create multiple delivery points. Windows will automatically download the updates from the closes computer.
I have experienced this personally when testing out the insiders builds. One of my local PC downloaded the update much faster than expected.
Control Bandwidth for Network Delivery
The default setup for this feature is that it dynamically optimizes the amount of bandwidth. The device uses to both download and uploads Windows and app updates. However, you can choose to limit the bandwidth, both upload, and download.
Let us know if these steps helped you to improve download experience in Windows 10.
