If you are a power user, you must have seen a process svchost.exe (netsvcs) using your Internet bandwidth. This may be stopped by setting your connection as a metered connection in Windows.
What does a metered connection do? Setting a Metered connection in Windows 8/8.1/10 Disable synchronization and device updates under a metered connection Disable OneDrive Sync Settings Turn off device updates Disable Search Suggestions and Bing Search Results Tracking data usage on a metered connection
What does a metered connection do?
A metered connection will restrict applications from using extra Internet bandwidth. It especially does the following:
Windows Update will only download priority updates. Apps downloading from Windows Store will be paused. Start Screen tiles will stop updating live data from the Internet. Offline files will not synchronize automatically through the Internet.
Setting a Metered connection in Windows 8/8.1/10
Configuration settings of metered connections are almost the same in Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. The screenshots in this article are taken on a Windows 8 PC. Setting a network connection in Windows 8 as metered connection is pretty easy. Just follow the step by step information given below: To disable the metered connection setting on any network connection, just follow the same steps and at the last step, just set the metered connection setting to off. Please note that Ethernet networks can’t be set as metered connections. You will need to have a wireless connection to set it as a metered connection.
Disable synchronization and device updates under a metered connection
There are a few settings you can configure to save more bandwidth than the default settings.
Disable OneDrive Sync Settings
Windows 8 or above have Microsoft OneDrive integrated into the Operating System. So OneDrive always keeps on synchronizing data which consumes a considerable amount of bandwidth. You may turn it off by following the steps below:
Turn off device updates
Turning off device updates will prevent Windows from downloading information for new device drivers and updating the drivers on a metered connection.
Disable Search Suggestions and Bing Search Results
If you use Windows Search in Windows 8 or above, you will notice that it is powered by Bing as you’ll get web results along with the local search results. You can turn this search feature off on metered connections.
Tracking data usage on a metered connection
Windows provides a very basic calculation on data usage over a metered connection. It will only list down the amount of data that has been downloaded and uploaded over the connection. If you want more details, I recommend a free utility called NetWorx which gives a lot of information as well as simple upload and download data usage. To turn on tracking of data usage on a metered connection, do the following: I hope I have covered most of the settings of Metered Connections in Windows. If I have missed anything or you have any suggestions, we are always open on discussions in the comments below.
