I see that but one has to wonder if I have had everything disabled properly for over a year, how did the scripts or whatever it was that turned it all back on get in there?It seems it is not possible to disable auto updating anymore (read the comments)
I ended up applying my image anyway and it went smooth. Kept it offline, turned off the service, and followed a guide make a key in the registry to prevent it. So far it seems to be working. While it is not downloading any new updates at the moment it seems to know I need them. I know it sounds silly this obsession with stopping the updates. But I am a married hard working man with very little time to enjoy playing my computer game. When I do find a little time I have no patience to wait for updates to do their things or spend hours fixing it because its not if, its when I get an update that cost me hours of fixing it. Thank you for your insight it is appreciated.I have not, so far, had any serious consequences from the automatic updates.
But, maybe of some significance, similarly, I have not found a need to make any registry alterations. IOf I have done so, in order to experiment or possibly deal with something I have read, then I make a registry backup. Naturally, under the circumstances, I would not dare to put this copy back after a cumulative update.
Not much help, possibly, but perhaps as you suggest, it is better to leave the registry alone and, as they say "go with the flow"
My two cents on this issue will always be that it's a terrible idea to disable auto updates as people will just not install the updates and then run the risk of a compromised system. The updates are 30-40% smaller now in build 1709 due to differential updates and most of the time don't require reboots anymore.