Windows Update - long time to check for updates

Well, sadly, back to the slow update checking here also. I let it run over 2 hours yesteday, and got nothing. Today I just restored my Win 7 image again, and will just let it check in the background as long as it takes I guess. Only annoying thing is that WU is using 50% cpu during this waiting period, so it sometimes affects things when I want to watch hd video for example... makes the video a bit sluggish, this machine isn't that powerful, unfortunately... Core 2 Duo, 6 year old laptop.

Oh well.... I guess this is what we get to live with since MS won't bother fixing the problem....

 

Some had hopes for the March Windows Update Client update, or the March Windows kernel-mode drivers update, to fix the slow Windows Update, but those updates didn't help either, so it seems.
Woody Leonhard pleas for Microsoft to fix the Windows Update slowdowns:
"It's time for Microsoft to fix the Windows 7 update slowdowns"

 

You can go to services.msc and temporarily disable Windows Update service (you need to restart your computer), that will stop it from hogging CPU resource.

 

Of course you've already installed the updates now. But, Windows Update doesn't hang, it just appears to do so. If you had let it run, it would have eventually updated your computer. Sometimes it can take many hours to find updates, but eventually it will.

 

Sure, but that defeats checking for updates, which I want it to do. I'm just complaining that while it's checking, it uses 50% cpu, and the checking takes hours and hours...

 

Problem was not due to a fresh install. System was regularly updated. Suddenly updates resulted in >90%CPU usage. Letting it run for >12 hours...no change.

 

Same here Kerodo on my Vista computer... It never happens with my Win 8 machine. I think updates for Vista will soon stop anyway so not a big deal...

 

I waited 4 hours today and got nothing, so I gave up on Win 7 for now, until such time as they fix the issue. For now, I'm on linux, which really suits my needs fine anyhow... I seem to be constantly frustrated with Windows lately, so maybe I should take a hint, and dump it...

 

Here's an idea that I tried ... Set your Windows Update settings to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them". In this scenario, it seems that once the check has run, the files are stored locally. If you close the update dialog and reopen it, the latest updates are still listed, and it does not start a new search.

When I set my update settings to either "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install" or to "Never check" the search would start all over again if I closed the update dialog and started a fresh manual search.

Random thoughts:
1. Microsoft needs to fix this +1
2. If your PC is strong enough, you can leave the update settings at "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install". Of course, it will run a long time each day and take up a huge chunk of resources, but you can ignore the problem, maybe ... not ideal for sure, and very annoying.
3. Try setting the update settings as described above, "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them". It should not have to run as frequently once it has downloaded the latest set of patches. You can install the updates at your convenience, and maybe the updater will not activate as often, taking up CPU resources as it does so.
4. There was a 3rd party resource call "Autopatcher" http://autopatcher.net/wiki/index.php?title=Using_Autopatcher that was described earlier in this thread. It sounds interesting, but I am a little leery of letting some scripts download and install OS patches, even if they supposedly come from Microsoft.
5. This issue does not seem to affect my Windows 8.1 laptop. Maybe it is time to update my Windows 7 desktop with a fresh update to Windows 8.1. It's got Microsoft support until year 2023. I prefer the desktop GUI of Win 7, of course, but you can beat down Win 8.1 to "almost" work like Win 7 :-D
6. No Windows 10, ever. At least until Microsoft accepts that the user owns the PC, and has rights to full disclosure about their data collection and usage. At least Google and Facebook are forthcoming about their data collection and usage in their privacy statements. Besides, it's different when you are talking about your OS vendor. They have WAAAYYYY more access to your PC than other cloud apps ...

 

It doesn't have to be a clean install, and sometimes it takes well over 12 hours to finish searching for updates.

 

Salutations/Greetings!

Windows 10 Latest update turn off system restore.
This stops windows updates on several of my PC's.
To get window updates and running.
Do the following below:

> Turn system restore back on
> control panel,system, system protection, highlight (C (System)
> click configure,apply,ok.
> restart your PC.
> click, settings, click,update & security,click, advance options
> choose how updates are delivered
> this will vary depending on how you connect to the internet.
> next step
> turn on or off , click the bull eye
> then restart the pc, each time until updates start.
> again, this will vary depending on how you connect to internet.
> play with turning on or off and click one bull eye and/or the other
bull eye. until you find the right combination. to get windows updates
working again.
Important to reboot the PC, each time you play withturn on or off ,
click the bull eye, ect....

Hope this help somebody with the same headache!

 

So I've read, but after having had the machine for years, and installing hundreds of updates, to suddenly have a computer that is literally unusable for days tells me something is horribly wrong.
(I had to permanently disable wuauserv from starting, as it was constantly using near 100% CPU.)

 

Hmmm ... well it appears that the slow Windows 7 update reports are coming in from all over this month ...

See these links for more info:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...9c3-bfc6-42df-a6ff-0e55ef7938eb?page=1&auth=1

http://www.askwoody.com/2016/its-time-for-microsoft-to-fix-glacial-windows-7-updates/

http://news.softpedia.com/news/windows-update-hanging-when-downloading-april-12-patches-502886.shtml

 

I'm letting it check for updates all day if necessary, started at 7am this morning. I'm curious to see how long it takes this month. If nothing shows up after a couple days, I think I'll just turn off Win Updates until they get the problem fixed.

 

Update: installed several critical patches, left a few non-critical security patches alone, & hid a couple of optional patches. My manual update search time (set to "Check for updates, but let me choose ...") is back to normal (under a minute). Manual updates check is also fast again, even with setting to never check ...

One that I did install was : Security Update for Windows 7 (KB3145739)

More information:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3145739

Just by coincidence, I noticed a related post about this patch, in the comments for this article at: http://news.softpedia.com/news/windows-update-hanging-when-downloading-april-12-patches-502886.shtml

"To resolve this issue : first install KB3145739.
Next you should restart and then you can check for updates in manual mode.
It takes between 5 or 10 minute"

So it would possibly appear to be that for two months in a row there was a single update in the list that triggered this long wait?

 

Quite remarkably, installing KB3145739 has fixed the problem for me also. I installed it, rebooted, then performed another manual check for updates. I'd given up on the previous attempts, after 6 hours and 3 hours respectively. The new check took 10 minutes and showed the updates available. Problem fixed until next month I guess.

 

Awesome!!!

 

I usually wait 2, 3 weeks to run Windows update and prefer to install updates a few at a time. I though this delay issue had been fixed for me after installing all updates from March as I ran Windows updates afterward, and that time checking for updates took less than 10 minutes.

But I ran Windows update a while ago, just to see what happens, the process took just under 2 hours. Thats worst than ever for me. In a few days when I run WU again, I ll install KB3145739 on its own to see if that update finally fixes the long delay.

Bo

 

Yesterday my Vista machine was on for 2-3 hours and failed to find any update although the symbol for new MS updates was visible on the tray.This morning after turning on the machine the updates were finally ready (13 of them)... Go figure...

 

It's crazy. I actually got a list of them appearing after about 4 hrs 45 mins this morning, but when I tried to download and install them, it just hung there and did nothing for a long time. I rebooted and did this and that, and I think I just made it worse, so I gave up and restored my 7 image again, and I'll let it go until it finishes this time. I think I tried to install them before the update checking process (whatever that may be) was finished... there was still the 50% cpu usage even after the list appeared. Also, it had not updated the Last Checked line either, so I guess that meant the process wasn't done. I don't know... I think I'll just use the machine normally for the next few days and see what happens if I just leave it alone. Lol.....

 

Thanks for sharing, it solved my problem.

 

I don’t use my Vista machine often these days but this time consuming update problem has suddenly revealed another very important issue related to MS and its attitude towards ‘old’ operating systems. As I mentioned, after starting my Vista computer this morning I found to my surprise that the updates were ready to download.

After re-booting the computer to allow the updates to properly install, everything should have been hunky-dory, instead my CPU remained at 50% constantly and 1.6 GB of memory usage, whereas in normal conditions it should be 1-3% and 1GB of memory (out of 2 GB Max) with 2-3 tabs open.

After shutting down everything that could affect the CPU activity (AV, Sandboxie, Chrome) there was no change, the CPU was stuck on 50% and overheating judging from the sound of the cooling fan. I opened “Windows Update/Change settings/Choose how Windows can install updates/Important updates” I switched the tab “Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them” to “Never check for updates (not recommended)”. The CPU instantly dropped to 1-3%.

I have experienced this very problem of enormous CPU activity and high memory usage with several XP machines before Windows Update was finally phased out for XP. I’m not suggesting that the problem is intentionally created, but it is odd that it is happening to old MS OSs…

 

That's kinda what was happening to me on my first try this morning. The cpu% just stayed at 50% even after the list showed up. Thankfully, I restored my image and did it again, this time I just waited and the updates were ready to install after 4.25 hours. All went well, and I just made an image of my new updated 7. But this whole thing took me 3 tries over a day and a half to get it right. Next time I think I'll know what to do.

There is obviously something going on with the older OS's, I think it has something to do with the sheer number of updates it has to process (installed and new). This started in Win 7 here over a year ago, and got worse and worse with time. MS needs to pay attention to all the complaints recently, and get this situation fixed. If they fix it in Win 7, I would think that would also fix Vista too. Hopefully anyhow.

 

Well, Windows Update can certainly be very unpredictable. I just ran Windows Update on an old Acer laptop which is running Vista SP1 32 bit with just 2GB of RAM installed. It took just a few minutes to find 89 updates. Windows Update said it was last updated in December. At the moment it's about halfway thorough downloading the updates, and RAM usage is at only 53%. I was expecting the RAM usage to be much higher.

This computer has quite a slow processor too, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64.

 

M$ doesn't have a problem with Vista. Someone's bonus must depend on how many people move to Windows 10 from Windows 7 ...

I tried getting the updates, which is something I do manually. I gave up. Better luck next time ...

A bit of a side note, they don't offer updates for IE 9 anymore. is the user experience (like interface) any different for IE 11 ? I'm just not a fan of the 'later, better, bigger'.