Windows Update - long time to check for updates

It seems to work :
http://wu.krelay.de/en/

Rules.

 

Ran "Fixit" in March and again now. Report shows items fixed.
Checking for updates..., no joy. No biggy.
Vista box "as is" serves as part time dust collector/paper weight/test.

 

That sucks but it seems some machines are difficult or impossible to fix. You might be able to get past it by manually downloading and installing some patches as there is usually at least one offender causing the problem. You may not consider that worth the time though, I don't know that I would.

 

....manual install two KB's from here http://wu.krelay.de/en/ and two failed KB's from February.
Checking for updates finished once. Installed one update with restart.
Check for updates/Installing updates..., works (for now).
Working on Important updates now. Fingers cross. Thanks!

 

Thanks @Adric for this solution
After tussling with this for days on a Win 7 netbook that hadn't been updated since August '15, it's busy downloading 98 important updates, after a 25 minute check ...
Not sure if KB3153199 alone would not have solved this issue, but previously I kept getting 'Searching this computer for updates ...' message until I also learned now I had to manually stop Windows Update service to install these KB's: https://superuser.com/questions/104...-results-in-searching-for-updates-on-this-com
Microsoft aren't doing themselves any favours!

 

Finally succeeded downloading all updates.
Four important updates: KB 3042058, KB3060716, KB3071756, and KB3126587 just would not install (not manually either, even after MSFixit, SURT and sfc). Until I downloaded optional updates. Who would have though important updates could be dependent on optional updates (recommended or not), but there you go!
Any how now we have this, which may help. More info here.

 

Thanks, paulderdash.
Did you find out which optional updates it was that those four important updates were dependent on?

 

Unfortunately not.
I took a sledgehammer approach and installed them all (except hardware and driver-related updates).
I don't worry to much with GWX-related (or telemetry) updates, the group policy setting to prevent an upgrade to W10 has worked for me - so far ... GWX Control Panel can help with this.

 

I can imagine.
Late March, I replaced my previous Vista installation with a clean Windows 7 installation. I checked all optional and a few important updates for updates that I don't want, or that I just don't need. To say that was quite the job, would be an understatement.

 

Before taking a sledgehammer, I would have tried WindowsUpdateFixer.
ToolsLib also hosts it.

 

On one of my Vista laptops which has not been updated for 6 weeks (so not that long), it took around 5 hours to check for updates this morning. Windows Update found 22 updates, and has been stuck on 0% when downloading the updates, for the last 4 and a half hours. I know that is it is not really at 0% since the Windows Update service has been consistantly using around 50% CPU time. Based on past experiences, if I leave Windows Update running it should eventually finish downloading and installing the updates.

I hope Microsoft do something to improve the updates situation once they start charging for Windows 10, and stop trying to force it onto everyone running Windows 7/8. At the moment, the issues with Windows 7 updates in not too much of an issue, as I usually upgrade every Windows 7 PC I work on to Windows 10. But, once MS start charging for Windows 10, I'll stick with Windows 7, so update will be an issue then. At least I rarely have to work with Vista PCs.

 

I did a few clean installs of Windows 7 without SP1 recently. The first few update searches are done in just a few minutes, but after SP1 is installed it needs to install a new version of Windows Update, after that one is installed, the search takes hours and hours.

 

I finally encountered a Windows 7 64 bit VM where installing KB3153199 did nothing to fix it. I let it run Windows update for several hours at 100% CPU and it never finished. Suspended the VM until I am ready to deal with it again.

 

My 7 ran for 3 3/4 hours checking for updates this month. 50% cpu usage the whole time. It's not so bad if you don't need to use the machine much during the process. I just set the machine to not sleep, and then go do something else for 4 hours, lol...

Even so, I have now set 7 to not check for updates from now on. The updates seem to be borking things too much. I might add EMET or some other security measures to compensate.

 

To update my last post. It took 12 hours for Windows Update to download and install the 22 updates. After this, it showed that there were no more updates available. I then did another check for updates, which only it took about two or three minutes, and found no more updates.

 

Same thing here 6 weeks but not nearly that kind of time, on my w7 mabe 20 min..

 

I'm still having the same problem on Windows 7X64 each month; many hours of trying to connect to the Microsoft update server. Microsoft update just runs and runs, but never proceeds to the next stage after many hours of trying. I installed the update fixes, but it never worked. It usually magically starts working after a full day of trying over, and over again. I think it worked for me once to change the Microsoft update settings to automatically download, and install updates; then I immediately changed them back to the update settings I normally use before updating. I tried that trick again though this patch Tuesday, and it did not work.

 

I've ended up disabling automatic updates when using any Windows 7 computer under normal working conditions. Whenever I see things slow to a crawl and the CPU pegged at 60-100%, I stop the Windows update service and everything returns to normal and I can use the computer again. So I've just set it to disabled and will enable it when I'm ready to update but use Autopatcher first. I just had to do this on a computer that was recently updated and had the KB3153199 patch applied. It was fine last week but Windows update is screwed up again.

 

My daughter's old Apple laptop is in its death throes. I was delighted when she requested a Windows laptop so I'll try her with an old Dell laptop that hasn't been used for two years. Windows Update had been set to "Never Check for Updates" and the last update was two years ago. Manual Update was selected and 87 updates were found after an hour. There were no Win10 notifications as it's old hardware and the CPU doesn't support Win10. After the 87 updates were installed, Manual Update was selected and one update was found after five minutes. After that update was installed, "Never Check for Updates" was still selected (hadn't been changed) and I doubt we'll update again. If we do it will be preceded by a backup image.

I must be lucky as I didn't experience hours checking for updates.

 

Yeah, it's strange how some people don't experience the problem and others do. Inconsistent....

 

Yes, was also lucky with updates so far. Sometimes I had to wait for 15-20 minutes, but never for many hours, as some members have experienced. I also disable Update service and only temporary enable it while updating.

 

It varies from computer to computer. I have some that are fine and some that are not. And it can change form one week to the next as I found out this morning.

 

Believe it or not, I first noticed a change over a year ago I think. It started with just a few extra minutes checking, then slowly over the past year, it has gotten worse and worse, till now it's about 3 3/4 hours to check here. So it wasn't sudden, it was something that built up slowly over time. I have no idea what that means, but it is what it is. I can live with it if I have to, but it would be nice to see a permanent fix.

 

New low:
After installing SP1 and new version of update client, Win7 took 30-34 hours searching for updates... (In a VM so slower than bare metal, 165 important updates found)

 

Considering Win 7 is still the most widely used OS, it really is unacceptable