Windows 10 been downloading *something* for hours...

Soldato
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I'm fairly new to windows 10 and have liked it so far, but one thing I hate is not knowing what my comp is doing with regards to windows updates and things.

It's been downloading something for about 5 hours now, and I have no idea what it is!

If I look in Resource Monitor under Network then I can see "svchost exe (netsvcs)" seems to be the culprit as it's at the top of the list, and it's basically using all my bandwidth (I'm only on 7MB speeds).

I've run a Malwarebytes scan, and rebooted and turned off the comp a few times, but as soon as I boot it up again it starts downloading again.

WTF is it? Should I be worried?
 
Are you sure it is downloading/internet traffic? (EDIT: Guessing it is as you are at your download speed) Windows 10 has the ability to share updates either to other systems on your LAN or on the internet. Ostensibly the option is supposed to be disabled by default but I've found it enabled several times on clean installs or turning itself on after doing a large update.

Options are at:

Settings - Update and Security - Advanced Options - Choose how updates are delivered.

It may also be downloading an update to apply later - some of the updates can be quite large which will take awhile on a 7Mbit connection and you have very little control over this with Windows 10 short of using 3rd party tools or messing around with disabling services which might impact on your normal usage of the OS.

It can be a fairly significant issue if you are using a metered connection that with the limitations in 10 can't be flagged as metered.
 
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Thanks Rroff - I already have the Choose how updates are delivered option set to off, and my other comp on my home network is turned off. So it's not that.

I know I've got fairly slow internet these days (ADSL2+, about 7MB max), but my rough maths means it must have downloaded about 10GB+ of data. That's one huge update, what the hell is going on??
 
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If you open task manager (more details) and find the service host entry that is using network you can expand that and see what services are under it - if it is the one with Windows Update it is almost certainly doing update stuff.

EDIT: Are you on the fast/insider ring or normal updates? as they've just pushed a fairly sizeable update to 14383 or something on the fast ring.
 
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Thanks chaps. Here's a quick screen grab of Task manager and Resource monitor

Rroff - is that what you meant, expand that part in Task manager (windows update is at the bottom...)

(Also, my current version is 1511)

ddyOhUy.jpg
 
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Yeah that is the part I meant - looks like it is Windows Update related.

Cheers bud.

Wonder what the hell it is then? I had a thought it might be something to do with the Forza 6 Apex beta game I downloaded a few weeks back updating or re-downloading or something - and it looks like it might be!

I have the following 2 folders

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.ApexPG_1.2.10.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

...which is 19.03GB in size

AND ALSO...

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.ApexPG_1.3.11.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

...which is 11.64GB in size

Why would there be 2 folders?
 
UPDATE - it's definitely the Forza 6 Apex cocking demo!!!

As mentioned above it's downloading a second folder called: Microsoft.ApexPG_1.3.11.0_x64__8 wekyb3d8bbwe which is now a few GB's bigger than it was.

But there is still the 'original' folder called Microsoft.ApexPG_1.2.10.0_x64__8 wekyb3d8bbwe

Will see what happens when it finishes downloading I guess....
 
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Barely even bother with it so never occurred to me it could be that :S

The worst thing is I can't even stop the download, and I can't uninstall the game, have tried. Must be because it's 'downloading an update'? Have tried to do both. What a sorry shower of **ite windows games store is. I must have played this demo for about 2 minutes max.
 
Really need help with this guys, it's doing my head in now.

I cannot stop this ****ing game from doing some sort of infinte download loop.

I have tried to uninstall it and deleted the folders at

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.ApexPG_1.2.10.0_x64__8 wekyb3d8bbwe

and

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.ApexPG_1.3.11.0_x64__8 wekyb3d8bbwe

But when I reboot it just starts downloading again!

I have tuned off automatic update of apps in windows store and have tried logging out of windows store, it just keeps going. What can I do?
 
Could try using wsreset (though might just start everything downloading all over again) or kill any processes related to the store :| there are some powershell commands that can be used to force remove app stuff but I'm not upto speed on those.

Afraid I try and avoid anything to do with the store as MS have made such a mess of implementing something that is pretty simple relatively speaking so can't be that helpful.
 
I think it's more complicated than I thought. I seem to have managed to get rid of Forza 6 but something is still constantly downloading.

There is a folder on my C drive called "$SysReset"

In there is a log file called "SetupAct_offline" which reads...

2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info RjvStartLogging: Started logging to [C:\$SysReset\Logs\SetupAct_offline.log]
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info Entering RjvFactoryImageAvailable
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info [systemreset.exe] Enter WinReGetConfig
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info [systemreset.exe] Parameters: configWinDir: NULL
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info [systemreset.exe] WinRE config file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\Recovery\ReAgent.xml
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info [systemreset.exe] WinRE is installed at: \
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info [systemreset.exe] System is WimBoot: FALSE
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info [systemreset.exe] WinRE image validated
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info No OEM image specified
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info ESD not registered: Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\WebSetup [ImageLocation] is not set
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info Did not find a factory reset image
2016-07-10 11:46:17, Info Returning TRUE from RjvFactoryImageAvailable
2016-07-10 11:46:22, Info RjvStopLogging: Stopped logging to [C:\$SysReset\Logs\SetupAct_offline.log]



Is my entire copy of windows trying to re download itself or something???
 
Did you upgrade an existing installation of 7 to 10? looks like something has gone wrong with an upgrade from a previous OS at a bit of a long shot.
 
Did you upgrade an existing installation of 7 to 10? looks like something has gone wrong with an upgrade from a previous OS at a bit of a long shot.

Upgraded from windows 7 about 2 or 3 months ago. Has been absolutely fine so no idea what's happened.

What should I do you reckon, just let it download away for 24 hours or whatever, and see what happens?
 
Could try an "in-place" upgrade to refresh the PC and fix software issues while keeping user files, etc. (Settings - Update and Security - Recovery)
 
Could try an "in-place" upgrade to refresh the PC and fix software issues while keeping user files, etc. (Settings - Update and Security - Recovery)

Just had a look at that - choosing the "keep my files" option it lists all 91 programs in my 'programs and features' saying they will need to be reinstalled if I go ahead. This includes all games and everything I've ever installed!

Obviously I cancelled it. What the **** has happened to my comp? I'm genuinely baffled and worried now.

Edit - it gets worse. Just had a look at doing a "system restore" - it only has 2 restore points, one from yesterday and one from a few weeks back. This is strange in itself. Choosing either, if I were to go ahead it lists hundreds and hundreds of items and drivers that would be 'lost' and have to be reinstalled. Something has gone terribly wrong. Do I have ANY options but to start from scartch. And how do I do that, I did the free upgrade from Windows 7. Wish i had never bothered!
 
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