Windows Update - long time to check for updates

Yeah, it's very confusing and frustrating to have to put up with all this. In my case, it checks for updates every time I boot up or daily I guess, but it only bogs down and gets slow on Patch Tuesday. I wish they'd fix the problem.

 

Kerodo,

Would it help to have the setting "Never Check for Updates" enabled? Then manually check for Updates every month after Patch Tuesday? That's how I ran WinXP and Win7.

 

I've been casually following this thread for a while, mostly in the kindred sense that I'm not alone in this. For Windows 7, the posts are erratically split between ongoing Patch Tuesday updates and updating a clean original-SP1 install on a new system.

Here's my experience with both:

I did a clean install last September. There were 194 updates and it took about 10 hours. All things considered, that there were no failures was fortunate. (I brain-locked and forgot to uncheck KB3035583. I hate it when I do that.)

As for Patch Tuesdays, it takes about 30-45 minutes for the update list to render and about that long to do a download and install.

The latest Tuesday set, done on the 15th, was particularly dragged out because of three restarts.

This is both for a 3rd gen i7 16MB desktop and a 2nd gen i5 4MB laptop and 50/5 Mbps cable on a gigabit LAN (I don't use WiFi for the laptop updates). Check for updates is disabled.

While it may very well be that Windows 7 systems take a back seat in priority or ignored dysfunction on the MS side, I can't help consider that with gazilions of systems in the queue, Vista on up, this might be what we have to live with. Especially in light of the hit and/or miss reports of the "fixes" floating about.

I now align the updates with preparing dinner or yard work or spinning a new Blu-ray movie.

 

That's a distinct possibility if I got rid of MSE and used another AV... MSE relies on WU to get it's daily def updates. I think I'm ok as is now though. Thanks.

 

This is speculation, but if M$ are up to some shenanigans it might have something to do with downloading and installing updates automatically. They might have done something so if automatic is turned off, updates are essentially impossible to get by initiating them manually. People get so frustrated they just set it to automatic.

It might also have something to do with their push to force Win 10. If automatic updating is turned off they can't silently install Win 10 update files on a person's computer.

 

I have automatic updates turned on in my Win 7, and it still takes forever (4 hours) to check for updates. I can tell what it's doing by the 50% cpu for 4 hours. When the cpu% finally returns to normal, then the updates are there...

I think there is a technical issue with WU in Win 7, and they're probably not very motivated to fix it. That's about it. Most of their attention and effort will naturally go into Win 10 development and maintenance.

 

That sounds about right.

It's Vista too though, at least for me. Actually Vista started having problems a couple of months before we had any problems with 7. Now that I think about it, M$'s not pushing Win 10 on Vista so my theory seems full of holes.

 

With Windows update service totally disabled, MSE will actually update itself every 2-3 days.

 

Hi act. When it does, does it re-enable the service? My mom uses MSE and I turned the service on because I thought it had to be. I'd rather disable it and update her manually once a month.

 

Really? Well that's news. Thanks.

 

I think I confused myself between several systems here, so I better retract this, likely, self-manufactured fact. Sincere apologies to all.

 

There's some information about updating MSE without using Windows Update at Next of Windows.
Updating Microsoft Security Essentials without Using Windows Update

Just a note, you are asked to answer a survey question before you are shown the content.

 

I have to retract my earlier retraction (post#261).
MSE does update itself every 3 days if you use Windows 7. I don't always login to Win7 partition so I have gaps. I've been watching it since Apr.25 and confirmed that Windows update service is OFF(disabled), BITS is on.
Updates came in Apr.28, May2, May7, and May10-today. I didn't run Win7 May1, May6, May8.

From Apr28 Outpost anti-leak log (dusted off from image):

and from today
MSE-selfUpdate-May10.jpg
Other days are identical. Note the use of temp.[/quote]

 

What Outpost shows (see above) seems to match your link about the use of MPCMDRUN, doesn't it? So they've built it in and somehow or other it runs even though I haven't done any command string work, nor any task scheduling jobs.
Clearly, if it's important to have the hourly or whatever updates, this won't do. But it suits me just fine to have Win7 updates off till I'm ready to go through the update adventures.

 

No, it does not reenable Win update service. I've really been watching it. But I'd be careful after Win update is allowed, to make sure you shut if off when Windows is really ready. Remember, they sometimes need a reboot or two, so don't shut it off too early.

Once a month, eh? I thought I was bad doing it at this 3-4 day frequency.

 

I do not understand what Microsoft thinks they are gaining from not aggressively addressing the deteriorating and problematic state of Windows Update. This 'essential' service is close to intolerable for 87% of their customer base. Microsoft knows what and how to improve the Windows update service because they have already done it for 13% of their customer base. Accusations of sabotage has been levied at Microsoft basically because the quality of service on windows update dramatically plunged over the past 9 months, which parallels the introduction of W10. Trust is hard to regain once it is lost so hopefully they have not stooped to this level.

When you have 87% of your customers reeling from poor service you can expect them to start looking elsewhere. No-one expects MS to invest millions in an antiquated, bug ridden and poorly written service just to maintain older OS products, however MS created this problem and has the responsibility fix it. A return customer is the most valued customer and MS seems to have lost sight of this.

 

Maybe this may help. I saw it at a forum and haven't tried though:

 

The update checking took about 3 1/2 hours here this morning. Got 16 updates, 4 of which are for Office. I agree that it's rather ridiculous that MS isn't fixing it, but in practice, it wasn't that bad. I got up at 5 am and started the check, then went back to sleep for 4 more hours and when I got up, it was done. Not too painful really... But still, this issue needs fixing, seriously.

 

Well, this data from 2014 really speaks volumes for where we may really stand as retail Windows consumers. Seems that MS fortunes and priorities may be elsewhere. Truth hurts, but possibly they no longer care about retail?

http://www.computerworld.com/articl...-q2--helped-by-xbox--enterprise-products.html

Retail sales of Windows declined $264 million, or 69 percent.

Meanwhile, Commercial revenue grew 10 percent to $12.67 billion, helped by strong software licensing sales growth of SQL Server, System Center and of enterprise cloud computing products, like Office 365, Azure services and Dynamics CRM Online.

System Center and SQL Server sales each grew by double digits, and revenue from Windows licenses sold in volume to enterprises grew 10 percent.
Commercial cloud services revenue, which includes Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online and Azure, was up 107 percent.

So I suppose migrating to Linux is really gonna "stick it to the man", right?

 

That's three year old news
Mrk

 

True, it's old news, but it surely relates to Microsoft's current business strategy, and/or apparent lack of interest in prioritizing retail Win 7 support.

I think the heavy push to get everyone onto Windows 10 is to cut support costs, even though they are committed to extended support for Win 7 until 2020, and Win 8.1 until 2023. They can charge Enterprise customers for their ongoing support contracts, but they don't make a dime off of us little people, once the sale has been made. Those earnings were already reported years ago.

Are you having issues with Windows updates? If so, what are your thoughts?

 

This month has been the absolute worst experience ever getting updates for 7 and Vista. I think M$ probably doesn't give a rat's about Vista at this point. Half the updates at the Download Center that are supposed to be for Vista won't install on my system. I finally gave up and set it to download updates but let me decide whether to install them. It did download them finally.

 

Seems to be effective...
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thre...check-for-updates.379435/page-11#post-2587463

 

I installed 14 Windows 7 updates this month and it took a whole day and night and a couple of reboots to get them all installed.

Its not something I look forward to doing every month.