How to Enable Windows 11 Delivery Optimization to Speed Up Updates

Windows 11 updates are notorious for consuming massive amounts of bandwidth and taking hours to download. If you have a household or office with multiple Windows PCs, having every single machine connect to Microsoft’s servers to download the exact same 4GB feature update is incredibly inefficient and will severely congest your internet connection.

Microsoft solved this problem with a feature called Delivery Optimization. When enabled, Delivery Optimization transforms your local network into a peer-to-peer sharing system. Instead of every PC downloading the update from the internet, one PC downloads it, and then silently shares those files with all the other PCs on your local Wi-Fi or Ethernet network.

In this guide, you will learn how to enable Delivery Optimization to drastically speed up Windows updates and reduce your overall internet bandwidth usage.

Step 1: Access Delivery Optimization Settings

Delivery Optimization is built directly into the Windows Update settings panel, but it is often buried in the advanced options.

1. Click the Start button on your taskbar and select the Settings gear icon.
2. In the left-hand sidebar, click on Windows Update.
3. Click on Advanced options.
4. Scroll down to the “Additional options” section and click on Delivery Optimization.

Step 2: Enable Local Peer-to-Peer Sharing

By default, Delivery Optimization might be disabled or configured incorrectly, depending on how your PC was set up.

1. Look for the toggle switch labelled Allow downloads from other PCs.
2. Click the switch to turn it On.
3. Directly below the switch, you must choose how your PC shares files. You will see two radio buttons:
   • Devices on my local network: This is the recommended and most secure option. Your PC will only share update files with other computers connected to your specific home or office router.
   • Devices on the internet and my local network: This turns your PC into a global peer-to-peer node for Microsoft, uploading files to random strangers on the internet. Do not select this unless you have unlimited, symmetrical fibre internet, as it will consume a massive amount of your upload bandwidth.
4. Select Devices on my local network.

Step 3: Monitor Your Bandwidth Savings

Once enabled, the system works completely silently in the background. If PC “A” downloads a cumulative update, and PC “B” checks for updates an hour later, PC “B” will pull the files directly from PC “A” over your gigabit local network, finishing the download in seconds rather than minutes.

You can actually see exactly how much internet data this feature has saved you.

1. On the same Delivery Optimization settings page, scroll down and click on Activity monitor.
2. This dashboard provides detailed statistics on your update traffic.
3. Look at the Download Statistics chart. It will show you exactly what percentage of your updates were downloaded from Microsoft (the internet) versus what percentage was pulled locally from other PCs on your network.

Important Considerations for Laptops

Because Delivery Optimization requires background processing and network activity to share files with other PCs, it can drain a laptop battery. Microsoft is aware of this. By default, Windows 11 will automatically pause Delivery Optimization sharing if your laptop is unplugged and running on battery power.

By enabling Delivery Optimization on every Windows 11 machine in your home or office, you ensure that massive gigabyte updates are only downloaded from the internet once, drastically improving the speed and efficiency of your entire network.