Windows pushes update with no internet?

Questions
1

So here’s the setup.

I installed windows 11 without signing in about a month ago. So no account.

I did all the updates that day, installed software that once activated no longer requires internet connection.

The computer is not part of any network. The few times it was connected was with a hotspot, but that was over a week ago.

Since then, I have had this computer on and off several times since then with no internet.

Went to use it a few days ago, again, no internet, just to use the software. Go to shut it down and it does some sort of update!

Went ahead and turned it back on soon after and the update finished installing upon reboot.

Checked the update history, nothing since the beginning of April.

When I say no internet, there’s no wifi available, at all. Plus it’s in airplane mode.

So how did it update???

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2

Don’t know how you accomplished this.

You use it fully offline? Wow.

This likely happened because the updated was likely downloaded automatically in the backgrounjd during

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That’s my best guess. Not sure how you’re using and what else you’re doing with your PC. I’m finding it hard to explain if all of this is true.

3

No internet needed for office documents and video editing. Or really any kind pf media editing.

I kept a Copy of the iso when one was able to use rufus to bypass the internet requirement. That’s how.

I have all the software I need for a long time so there is no need to connect to the internet.

There’s not a static always on wifi in my apartment, just the hotspot. Which that hotspot has not been on in the past week. In fact, when I did all the updates I connected via usb cable rather than ever logging into with wifi.

So unless it was a previous update from over a week ago that just decided to install now, it had to come from somewhere.

I double checked after writing this post, wifi and bluetooth disabled and in airplane mode.

Sorry, this is just creepy.

Also, the phone has not been plugged into the computer since either.

4

The only person that is ever going to be able to solve this is you.

To me, its clear if the machine downloaded an update it had internet access at some point and you are missing something.

How could this happen? The way most issues happen. Human error.

2 Likes
5

Locally stored updates.

You probably have out of hours auto updater on. Check this too for how updates are handled. Even if you connect for a short period it’ll download and install later.

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6

This is very probable. No matter how invasive Windows is, it cant’t magically download updates from the air. There must’ve been a moment where it was connected to the internet.

@IsItJustMe Next time, use something like Windows Update Blocker or any similar scripts(e.g., Privacy.sexy) to completely block auto-updates.

1 Like
7

Yes the computer was hooked up to my hotspot over a week ago.

The computer has been run at least 3 times since with no internet connection. I would have had to manually plug in my phone which has Graphene OS and instruct it to tether. Which hasn’t happened in over a week.

Unless it was some sort of delayed update that waited to install a week later.

What’s unnerving is there’s no updates in history the day this happened. The last recorded update was the beginning of April.

I have heard intel hardware can create an internet connection on it’s own. But I don’t remember where I saw that.

When this ghost update happened, the only active internet around would have been neighbors wifi hotspots which I have never been connected to. Also, wifi was disabled along with bluetooth.

Anyways, thanks for the responses.

8

IMO that’s the only plausible explanation.

Check :

  • Event Viewer → Windows Logs → System (filter for “WindowsUpdateClient”)
  • C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log (if it exists)

The fact that update history shows nothing since early April strongly suggests these weren’t new downloads from Microsoft servers, but rather local operations completing.

9

I was under the impression here that the issue is they thought the computer wasn’t networked and then it was, not specifically that updates were installed. If you’re going to be connecting it to the internet or a network then you should install updates.