[mothered]

Yeah but I need updates.

So enable the service when you need the updates, and disable It when you don't.

Aside from that, I'll state the obvious here. In Control Panel, I assume you've selected the "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and Install them" option via the drop-down menu and hit OK for the changes to take effect?
Doing so, will display a balloon tip In your Taskbar (when new updates are available) advising that they are ready to Install.