How to set data limits for windows 10 PC

Windows 10 is a modern operating system that is installed even on laptop computers. It is quite often that owners of such laptops use them outside of home or office space, where they have to connect to the Internet through an access point on a smartphone or tablet. Few people have unlimited mobile Internet traffic, and in just a few minutes or hours of work at a computer running Windows 10 connected to the mobile Internet, prepaid gigabytes may run out. To prevent this from happening, you can limit the maximum amount of data consumed by a computer by the means of Windows 10 operating system, and in this article we are going to tell you how to do it.

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Table of contents:
1. How to set a data limit on a Windows 10 computer
2. How to optimize data usage in Windows 10

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How to set data limit on a windows 10 computer

Among the standard Windows 10 utilities there is a program that is able to control the data usage. To use it, follow these steps:

1. Go to “Parameters” (by clicking on the gear in the “Start” menu or by pressing Win + I on the keyboard). Go to “Network & Internet”;

2. In the left part of the parameters window, switch to the “Data usage” subsection;

3. Next you need to select a network connection that needs a limit for data consumption. The connection is selected in the “Show options for” list. Now click “Set Limit”;

4. There will open a window for setting data limit. Here you can choose which limit to activate for this connection: monthly, one time or unlimited. Also, you can configure the limit validity period and the amount of data allowed for this device. It can be set in both – megabytes and in gigabytes. After setting all necessary parameters, click “Save”;

5. After that, the settings will display information about data limit for the connection. It will indicate how much data has already been used, and how much is left. If you need to remove the data limit, click “Remove limit”. If you need to set more or less than the limit of permissible traffic, click “Edit limit”.

It is important to note that while you are setting the data transfer limit, there will also be an option to restrict the background operation of Microsoft applications and components, when there is left less than 10% of limit.

How to optimize data usage in windows 10

If the data consumption is limited, it will not be superfluous to optimize your PC in order not to spend the available megabytes too quickly. A very small amount of programs that are using Internet in the background, independently suppress their appetites when the data limit function is activated. It is recommended to perform the following steps to optimize data consumption:

• Disable synchronization with cloud services. By default, all computers running Windows 10 have OneDrive already installed. Right-click on the program icon in the taskbar, and then select the “Pause syncing” option. You can select a certain period for OneDrive so it will stop working for 1, 3 or 24 hours. Select the desired option. If your computer uses other cloud services (for example, Dropbox or Google Backup), try to suspend them in a similar way. In case you are using services that do not have an option of temporary suspension, disable them completely for the whole period of using the limited Internet connection;

• Next, you need to pause all applications working in the background, since they can access Internet, including updating purposes, which can push you to spend a significant amount of limited data. Go to “Settings” on your computer, move to the “Privacy” section and the “Background Applications” Prevent applications from running in the background by disabling some or all of them at once using a single switch at the top of the settings page;

• On your PC turn off applications that may potentially use Internet in the background, but they are not Microsoft Windows 10 programs. For example, some gaming applications (Steam, UPlay, Origin, Battle NET and others), programs for downloading files (uTorrent), various update services (drivers, applications);
• Reduce data consumption executed by the browser. To do this, you can use the built-in browser solutions or third-party extensions. For example, for Google Chrome browser, it’s enough to install the official Google extension called Data Saver. This extension allows you to reduce data consumption when surfing through the Google Chrome browser. It will be displayed on the top taskbar of the browser. When this extension is active, it is lit in blue, and when disabled, in gray;
• Find out which programs on your computer use a lot of data. This can be done from the system parameters. Go to “Settings” – “Network & Internet” – “Data Usage”. Click on the “View usage per app” There will open a window that contains specific information about how much data each application has spent on your computer during the last 30 days. Disable programs that do not need to be run in the background when using limited traffic.

By optimizing data consumption on Windows 10 PC, you will not have to worry that the available megabytes will run out due to some actions that you did not perform.