Excessive Data Usage

[Dave-Sad]

Hi All,

Tried all suggestions found on forum, but didn't get any help.

While connecting to internet I found that my laptop is consuming too much data (1GB/20 min). I have tried all the steps (switching off the updates, background data, etc) given in the forums but didn't get any help.

Please suggest.

[TheOldMan]

Windows 10 does do allot of things in the background and once it gets caught up, then data usage calms down.  Even if you have updates turned off.  If the data consumption is more than you can tolerate, then perhaps use a different OS, such as a Linux distro.  If you would like to try that approach, you can boot to a Live OS without making any changes to the PC and run it to see if you can get along that way.

[Dave-Sad]

Thank you for the reply.  I am a little leary about messing around with too much as I am no computer expert.  I have placed a data usage limit which seems to be helping right now.  I am just at a loss as too what could the computer possibly be doing which is requiring 6 gigs a day (only becuase the computer is only on for an hour or so).  One day was 25 Gigs!!!!  It seems pretty crazy.

[WAWood]

@Dave-Sad 

As @TheOldMan mentioned, Win10 does put a lot of demands on data -- one that prior OSs did not, especially since Win10 does not allow you to selectively install Windows Updates -- it's all or none.

To find out what version and build of Win10 your PC is running, do the following:
1) enter "cmd" (without the quotes) into the search area and select the Command Prompt option
2) enter "winver" into the command window (again, without the quotes)
3) the most current Win10 is v1809 Build 17763.379

If yours is older than that, most likely WU is hogging your PC trying to update it.

To disable WU temporarily, do the following:
1) Enter "services" in the search area (again, without the quotes)
2) When the window opens, scroll down until you see Windows Update
3) If it say Running under status, that indicates that WU is running
4) To change that, double-click on that task, select Stop under the Service status, and then Apply
5) That should stop WU -- and you should see an immediate improvement in performance -- and a drop in data usage.

You can also read this on how to set your Internet connection to METERED -- which will drastically reduce the amount of stuff that MS downloads for Windows Updates:  https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/35656-set-ethernet-connection-metered-unmetered-windows-10-a.htm...

The only way I can see your having downloaded over 20GB of data was if your PC did a Feature Upgrade -- as those often require around 20GB of free space to perform, even though they don't download much more than 4GB of data.