What is the Windows Update Medic Service (WaaSMedicSVC.exe) in Windows 11/10? Why do you get Access is Denied message when you try to disable it? How can you disable Windows Update Medic Service? This post tries to answer these questions.
What is Windows Update Medic Service (WaaSMedicSVC.exe)
The Windows Update Medic Service is a new Windows Service introduced in Windows 10. This Service has been introduced to repair Windows Update components from damage so that the computer can continue to receive updates.
Windows Update Medic Service (WaaSMedicSVC) enables remediation and protection of Windows Update components. This means that even if you disable Windows Update related Services, this service will at some point in time re-enable them.
SIH client in Windows 11/10
Windows 11/10 schedules a task in the Task Scheduler. This daily task launches the SIH client to detect and fix system components that are vital to automatic updating of Windows and Microsoft software installed on the machine. This task can go online, evaluate the applicability of healing actions, download necessary payloads to execute the actions and execute healing actions. On my PC it gets triggered every 20 hours. The SIH in SIHClient.exe presumably stands for Service Initiated Healing.
Other notes:
- Its related SIHClient.exe, WaaSMedic.exe, WaaSMedicSvc.dll and WaaSMedicPS.dll files are found in the Windows\System32 folder
- Its dependencies are Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
- It maintains its log file in C:\Windows\Logs\waasmedic folder
- This Service has been configured to start in the Manual startup mode.
WaaSMedicSVC.exe High or 100% Disk Usage
If your WaaSMedicSVC shows high disk or memory usage it simply means that it is doing its job. This post will show you how to fix Waasmedic Agent Exe high CPU usage issues.
If this continues for long spells or frequently, I suggest you run the System File Checker to repair this particular file.
Can you disable Windows Update Medic Service?
Yes, you can disable Windows Update Medic Service, but if you try to do so via Windows Services Manager, you will get an Access is Denied message.
To disable it, you will have to use the Registry Editor, and change the value of Start in
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WaaSMedicSvc
to 4 and then set the permission of the ket to SYSTEM Deny. This we do not recommend doing manually, as it also compromises your system
The easier way would be to take the help of a freeware called Windows Update Blocker.
If with a view to stopping automatic Windows Update on your Windows 10 PC you have disabled Windows Update Services, you may have found that after every update or upgrade or at some point in time, the operating system resets all your Windows components and the Service configurations to their default values, thereby negating all the work you may have done to disable automatic Windows Updates.
On my Windows Pro PC, I have set the system to Notify me to download updates using Group Policy.
I suggest that you too do that instead of completely disabling Windows Updates.
Nevertheless, if you do plan to completely disable automatic Windows Updates, you will have to also disable this Windows Update Medic Service.
Read next about the Update Orchestrator Service (UsoSvc) in Windows 11/10.
