As most of you know first hand, the Internet in these times helps us a lot. In fact having a PC with Windows 10 connected helps us get much more performance out of the computer in general terms.
But of course, despite the advantages we have thanks to this Internet connection , this comes at a cost. One of the reasons is that Windows 10 is a very demanding operating system with the data it consumes. Therefore, in the event that we have a limited data plan or simply have certain limitations when using this connection, it can be very useful to reduce the amount of data consumed by the operating system.
That is why below we are going to show you a series of steps to follow in order to reduce this data consumption by Windows 10. Say that all of this can be extremely useful for certain controlled environments. Here are included some jobs or offices, and even study centers.
Convert your connection to metered use
If what we are looking for is that Windows 10 consumes less data than it normally uses, we can always make the Internet connection measure. And it is that in that case, the Windows computer suspends some activities that consume data. This is included as the automatic download of updates, both system and application, and some other functions that consume in the background.
Therefore, for this we access the Configuration application through the Win + I key combination and select the Network and Internet option. Then click on the Properties button, in the Status section. It will be then when we find the selector that interests us in this case. Thus, we will only have to locate the Connection section for medium use, which by default came deactivated, so we change its status.
Limit Windows 10 online data usage
Another very useful solution to reduce this consumption of data by the system, is establishing a quantity of data that we want to use on the PC . In this way what we achieve is to establish a data limit, for example weekly to have control of the data consumption of the equipment. For all this, we again access the Windows Settings application as we saw previously.
We go back to the Network and Internet section and in State click on the button Use of data. In the new window that appears we can already click on Specify limit to customize this.
In fact we are going to find a window in which we can customize both the time of the limitation, and the data that we are going to use in megabytes or gigabytes. Thus, when the established limit is reached, your computer notifies us, so we can readjust it.
But that is not all in this sense, but also something similar we can do with the data consumption of apps that work in the background. And it is that by default, the Windows 10 operating system allows some applications to run in the background even when they are closed and we do not use them. Some of these applications not only consume bandwidth, but also drain the computer’s battery. Therefore we can limit the use of data in this sense as only disable background applications
For this we open Settings and we are located in this case in Privacy, where in the left section we look for the Background Applications option. Therefore in the window that appears we can already deactivate the control that says Allow applications to run in the background.
Alternatively we can also deactivate the applications one by one to further personalize this section.
Manage updates to save data on Windows
Another move we can make is to disable the automatic update from the Microsoft Store. You should know that by default the installed applications of the operating system store are configured to update automatically. This is done as soon as a new version is available. Thus, this is something that has its advantages, although as you can imagine, they also consume a lot of data from our Internet connection.
Therefore to avoid it, the first thing we do is start the Microsoft Store on the Windows PC. Once we are in the official store of the system, we click on the menu button that is represented with three dots in the upper right corner. Next we select the Configuration option, where we can already deactivate the option to Update applications automatically.
That’s when it comes to UWP applications on the system, but to save data, it’s also important that we manage Windows updates correctly. It is true that at first these correct errors and help the team to work better. However some of these updates are huge in size. That is why if at any given time we need to save data, a good way to reduce that use is to pause updates for later.
This is something that we are going to achieve again by going to the Configuration application of the operating system. Then we open the Update and security section, where we click on the Advanced Options link.
Therefore, as we see here, we will already have the opportunity to establish a specific date until which the team will stop updating the operating system. In this way what we achieve is to postpone the arrival of these elements that consume so much data in most cases.
Turn off account data synchronization
When logging in with your Microsoft account on the PC, the Windows 10 operating system synchronizes the data corresponding to the configuration of the equipment, among other things. This action is carried out with other computers in which we have logged in with the same Microsoft account. Although this is a very useful feature in some cases, it consumes a lot of data and we probably don’t need it always working. In this way, what we can do is deactivate this configuration and activate it only when we need to synchronize with other equipment.
Thus, we are in Configuration as we have done before, and in this case we select the Accounts / Get access to work or school section. Therefore, the computers where we use this same account will appear here, so that we can deactivate the data synchronization .
