Remove items / tasks from Windows 8 automatic maintenance

[Island_Boy_77]

After wasting much of the afternoon trying to find a way to install Windows Updates automatically WITHOUT all the crud of the useless "automatic maintenance", I've come to a dead end. I know that M$, the hallowed Fruit Company and Google are trying desperately to dumb computers down so that monkeys can use them, but how ridiculous is it that one can't chose WHAT the needless dense-person's "automatic maintenance" actually does? A bit like having a function in a car that when you put the key in the ignition it also puts your seatblet on, turns on the headlights and checks the air in the tyres - making you wait 15 minutes while it does so! Surely someone out there must know a way (without upgrading to Win 8 Pro or learning scripting) to either a) Have Windows updates running by themselves like they used to / ought to or b) have an easy way to remove items from the list of things done during the spurious "automatic maintenance". No wonder techs hate W8 - its crap from a customisation point of view. No wonder MS will be dead in 5 years with nonsense like this. It's enough to make one think about going to Linux... >:(

[Webville312]

Ok, it seems like you are frustrated with windows 8. But, may I ask, what is your question exactly ..?

[Island_Boy_77]

As per my rant:
"a) Have Windows updates running by themselves like they used to / ought to
or
b) have an easy way to remove items from the list of things done during the spurious "automatic maintenance"

Translation if required: I either want to be able to just run Windows Update as it used to on XP, Vista & 7 independently of the maintenance, or have a way to cull what is done during the maintenace. Or possibly as a last resort, find a way to only run the maintenance once a week, fortnight or month - anything to reduce the needlessness of the automatic maintenance and get Windows Updates to just update by themselves as they used to. Just whatever is feasible. I know I'm not the only one looking to do the same, but the only info I've found so far requires gpedit which means the Pro edition of 8, and I'm not paying to upgrade to 8, have to learn scripting & such just so I can fix something that has no business being inconfigurable in the 1st place. >:(

[Reverend Jim]

I'm not sure I see the problem. You go to control panel, then Windows Update, then select Change Settings. Then you pick Install Updates Automatically. Just like Windows 7

[Island_Boy_77]

No - it doesn't work that way. Sure, you can set Windows Updates to work automatically, but it ONLY works as part of the stupid new "automatic maintenance". If I turn off the automatic maintenance, I turn off Windows Updates. How crazy is that?

[happygeek]

Windows 8 = the new Vista. Discuss ;)

[Webville312]

I could not agree more with happygeek. I find windows 8 really complicated.

[Island_Boy_77]

So are we saying then that we are stuck with this silly arrangement of only being able to do automatic Windows updates IF we put up with the pointless, uneditable automatic maintenance? Has no uber-geek somewhere found a way to "slice & dice" a registry entry or 2 to allow us to actually tell Windows what WE want the automatic maintenance to do? W8 appears to really be a "dummies" OS, wrapped in an incredibly, needleesly complex array of menus & options sprouting like mushrooms all over the place...

[Rik_]

I work at my local computer shop. We spend a fair amount of our time getting rid of 8 and installing 7 for people. I recon that's the best cure!!

[Island_Boy_77]

@ Rick from RCE

But we both know that is a drastic workaround, at best. Sure, W7 is a nice OS that does everything that all non-touch users could really want, but it's already very hard to get access to W7 (I've only got access to OEM stuff which is expensive), and it would be better if W8 was simply tweaked to be as it ought to be, rather than just writing it off as the new Vista. After all, there ARE some things to like about 8 after one gets past all the "metro" rubbish. Alas, it seems the more I experience 8, the less I'm liking it. Such a pest that there is this ever-present unseen push to always want to change - especially if what we had in 7 already worked. Just because we can do a thing doesn't necessarily follow that we should. There's a lot to be said for "solidifying" ones position vs always being on the bleeding edge... :-p