Set Windows Store Bandwidth in Windows 10

Last Updated on March 23, 2018

Apparently, the typical method of limiting bandwidth for apps doesn’t work with Windows Store. It works with other apps but doesn’t with Windows Store. This was pointed by our friend Castaa in a comment. Though I remember this method working at the time of writing that post, It certainly doesn’t now. Perhaps, Microsoft has changed something.

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One thing you can do to limit the background downloading of data is marking your internet as metered. In the Network settings, Windows provides you with the option to set a connection as metered. A limitation of this approach is that that it only works with Wireless networks like WiFi.  The good news is that using this simple registry trick, it is possible to mark any network as metered.

Limit Windows Store Bandwidth in Windows 10 via Group Policy Editor

Fortunately, limiting bandwidth for Windows Store is possible via our good old trusty Group Policy Editor. Of course, gpedit is only available for Windows 10 Pro, so if you don’t have that, this method won’t work for you.

  • Press Windows + R to open the Run box. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter. This will open the Group Policy Editor on your PC.
  • Focus on the sidebar and navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Delivery Optimization.
  • In the Delivery Optimization policy, check out the right side details pane. Look for Maximum Download Bandwidth setting and double-click on it. On some PCs, this setting might be named as “Max Download Bandwidth”. Both are the same things.
  • On the top-left of this box, there is an option to enable this setting on Windows. Click on “Enabled” to start working with this setting.
  • In the box on the left, there is an option to manually adjust the maximum amount of bandwidth the apps can use. You can set it to any value (in kB/s).
  • The value you should enter is dependent on the speed of your internet connection and your intent. If you have got a 5Mb/s downloading speed internet connection, you can put any value below 5000 in there. Putting anything more will be counterintuitive because that threshold would be never reached. The value you enter there will set the max speed for the Windows Store.
  • To (say) limit the download bandwidth for the Windows Store to 2Mb/s, you need to enter 2000 (Mega = 1000) in the box. Use your own calculations to decide the value. Click OK and close everything.
  • Restart your PC to apply the changes.
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Written by Utkarsh

Utkarsh Bhatt is a certified tech expert and software engineer for a Fortune 500 Company. He was born in 1995, making him one of the oldest members of the team at EFX. Utkarsh loves solving technical issues and is always the first to jump on any problem that needs solving. When he’s not coding or debugging, he enjoys playing video games (especially Super Smash Bros.) and watching cartoons.

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