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Monday 16 March 2020

Windows 10 metered network setting

Over twelve months ago I had a laptop problem where an over-sized Windows update was trying to download, and was choking my system (here). As I have still not installed that ridiculously large 87Gb file, whenever I change networks, the problem returns.

I had a simple fix for the problem when it recurred: I would set the new network as a metered connection. This involved changing a fairly simple setting at: Taskbar | Notification Icon | Network | Network and Internet Settings | Change connection properties | Metered connection | Set as metered connection; and set the toggle to "On" (as you can see from the illustration for this post, shown as a green toggle switch).

However, I recently ran across the situation where I was unable to change this setting because the "Set as a metered connection" option was greyed out. I could not click on it at all. Clicking on the link immediately below it - How can I change this setting - provided no answers. Tricky.

I did a lot of googling, but, while Microsoft mentioned ensuring that the user had administrator rights - I do - there were no fixes which worked. I tried a registry edit where we need to change the value of the Networks from 1 to 2 (ie, unlimited to limited), but that did not work at all, and for most entries, I was unable to change the registry values at all.

After reading many posts, and a half day search, I finally ran across a single post which offered another way in. And thanks to Network Bees (17 July 2019), I can share that 'how to' with you. Just below the Metered connection area at Taskbar | Notification Icon | Network | Network and Internet Settings | Metered connection, click on the help link "Change data limit settings". From there, set your data limit to whatever the data limit is you require (I set mine as 1Gb for a month), then in the background data section, set this to "Always".

We should be no longer plagued by Microsoft trying to gobble up our harddrives.

Sam

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