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[Weaver]

Which ISPs have a "cheap rate" for metering off-peak hours usage?

I had an idea that I might write a tool that will prevent Windows Update on your machine from downloading patches unless it is during 'cheap' off-peak periods.

Some ISPs might be cheap all weekend. Some might have a cheap middle-of-the-night band something like 00:00-06:00 or 02:00-06:00, or might just be cheaper at any time outside 09:00-18:00. How does your ISP's metering vs charging work?

[Weaver]

I'll get stuck into this at the wkend.

The basic idea is to stuff "policy" values into the registry to switch Windows Update to "check but don't download" mode during "peak" hours (I'll refer to this as the "mode" option).

Every morning the service gets stopped [?] before the end of off-peak time, and set mode = check_no_download

The service is set to not autostart and one option would be at every boot to check the time of day "now" there and then and configure the mode appropriately.

Late at night, after the commencement of the off-peak period mode=download (or mode=download_and_autoinstall  ) and the service presumably needs to be stopped and restarted to make it pick up the change.

I'll test it on a WinXp SP3 box, Vista box and Win7 box.

[gs1norwich]

Surely you can just set win update to notify but dont auto download anyway (thats how i have it on Win7 Ultimate 64bit)
It tells me when updates are available and then i download & install them when i choose,
And the only updates i ever see are definition updates for windows defender and they tend to be under 500k anyway

I am on BT so the time of day i download does not matter, but i can see the point you are making especially for anyone say on XP who has had to format and needs to download SP3