When Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) downloads are slow, reconfigure Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS).
When to use foreground or background BITS priority
The default Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) mode for WSUS is background priority mode. As written in Microsoft Docs:
Unless the job is time critical or the user is actively waiting, you should always use a background priority. However, there are times when you may want to switch from background priority to foreground priority.
Best Practices When Using BITS
If you feel your Windows Server Update Services updates download take too long to complete, you can switch to foreground priority. This may speed up WSUS.
Speed up WSUS update downloads by switching to BITS foreground priority
So, to speed up the download of WSUS updates through BITS, configure it to foreground priority. In Powershell you can do this quite easily:
$Configuration=(Get-WSUSServer).GetConfiguration()
$Configuration.BitsDownloadPriorityForeground=$True
$Configuration.Save()
(get-wsusserver).GetConfiguration()
Whenever you want to switch back to normal background BITS priority, set BitsDownloadPriorityForeground back to $false.
WsusPool keeps crashing: stops again and again
You can get its current value using:
(get-wsusserver).GetConfiguration().BitsDownloadPriorityForeground
This will show you whether the setting has been enabled (True) or not (False).