How to stop unnecessary usage of 3G and GPRS Data by Windows 8 or 10

Latest Windows is made for those who mostly work on Wi-Fi or use time limited data packs, especially 3G. But those who use space limited data packs (e.g. 2gb @ x money), it becomes difficult for them to work on Windows 8 peacefully because Windows 8 uses a big part of it in background and also in foreground and very little is left for us to use. It becomes a total wastage of money to surf internet on Windows 8/10. Those who use 2G/3G internet, their data speed slow down because of the background activities of Windows OS.

So, to cope up with these problems, today I am going to tell you some steps by which you can minimise or even stop unnecessary GPRS or packet data usage in Windows 8 or 8.1 and even in the latest Windows 10 builds.

Step 1

You’ll find live tiles in the start menu for the apps such as news, sports, maps etc. which use internet each and every time you connect to internet. So, go to start >>right click on the live tile>>click  Turn live tile off.

Turning live tile off

Step 2

Windows 8 updates more than any other version of windows. It starts downloading updates whenever you connect to the internet. Windows 8 generally doesn’t need any driver to run any program. So, you have to change the Windows Update settings to reduce the data usage. Go to Control Panel and change the Windows Update settings to ‘Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them’. You can later on download the updates at once.

Windows Update Settings

Step 3

There are many background processes which uses a lot of packet data (e.g. background software update or download). So, you have to turn off all those background processes. For that, open Task Manager >> Click More details >> Click Services tab >> Click Open Services in the bottom (Services window will open) >> in the new window right click Background Intelligent Transfer and Stop it >>then select Properties >> select Startup type: Disabled >> Click OK.

Task Manager-Services

Services- Background Intelligent Transfer

Background Intelligent Transfer- Properties

Note: This method works perfectly on Windows 10 as well.

Now its all set. Enjoy Surfing!