Windows Update - long time to check for updates

Did you consider to update using their "SP2" - convenience rollup? https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com...17/simplifying-updates-for-windows-7-and-8-1/

 

Only very briefly, it looks like it also includes the telemetry updates so that's a no go for me.

 

Fresh install of Windows 7 Pro SP1 has been searching for updates for about an hour now, it just keeps rolling on and on and on and on.

 

Here we are several hours later and its still rolling and rolling and rolling along, I've never experienced anything quite like this..

 

When I use Win Updates, even on a fairly up to date setup, it now takes 3 3/4 hours on mine. I just set the pc to never sleep, and let it go on and on and on. Eventually, it comes up with the list.

 

Have you read any of the previous information in this thread?
If not, well, this may be helpful:
First download and save a recent Windows Update Agent version (choose the one appropriate for your Windows version, Windows 7 SP1 x86 or x64)
and also download and save KB3083710 and KB3102810,
then do an offline Windows 7 installation,
then install the recent Windows Update Agent version and updates KB3083710 and KB3102810,
and only after that, go online and run Windows Update to search for updates.
This takes off many hours of Windows Update searching for updates.

 

@hogndog Also, you may want to have a look at the following thread. Windows 7 "SP2" launched. It's a download with all of the updates released up until April of this year.

 

Sorry it took so long to reply I've been working on a couple of computers. The mystery is solved or so it seems, in Windows 7 it does updates when its good and ready, not one minute before or anytime before its ready. Maybe that's just the way it is for a fresh install.

Thanks for your replies guys its greatly appreciated..

 

Unfortunately it's not just fresh installs that are affected. Sometimes it can take a long time to search for new updates on a computer on which you've previously installed updates.

However, as you found, if you just leave Windows Update running, it will eventually find updates.

 

i learned in this case that eventually was a very long time..

Thanks again..

 

The high-CPU and hanging WU problem reappeared for me today (Patch Tuesday) and, as in past months, was solved by stopping the WU service manually and downloading/installing the latest kernal update https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/MS16-073

After a reboot, WU found all remaining updates in a few min. after a manual check, with normal CPU usage on my aging W7 64-bit laptop.

 

Is it just me or are others feed up with the slow download and install time it takes for Windows updates? IMO about time we starting raising hell about this.
Always,
Wildman

 

Anyone know how to email the big wigs at Microsoft? Hate to say it but I think we need to SPAM them about this. Apparently they will stop at nothing to force people to upgrade to Windows10 and don't much care about any of the other versions. They have known about this slow situation for months now and seem unwilling or is it uncaring to do anything about it.
Always,
Wildman

 

They may well fix the issue when they stop offering the free upgrade to Windows 10. Who knows? But I can only hope. At the moment for me it is only an issue for Vista computers, as I upgrade every Windows 7 computer I come across to Windows 10.

 

I doubt that they care for Windows 7 users an more - since we don't want to upgrade to 10. I have tried to update in past few days but it took too long, so I decided to wait for a week or two and try again later.

 

I restored my Win 7 image yesterday morning, and let it check for updates. After 6 hours of checking with no results, I gave up, and restored another image (Win 10) for now. It is getting worse each month by a factor of a couple hours each time. Terrible. MS doesn't care or they'd have fixed this issue long ago. No amount of bitching and complaining will sway them from their agenda at this point...

 

For me, the only workaround turned out to be the recent SP1 update rollup. That installed pretty fast on a fresh SP1 system, IIRC in less than an hour. The subsequent Windows Update run completed overnight; probably in just a couple of hours, considering that all updates were complete by the time the desktop suspended itself. Currently, Windows Update is installing stuff in a matter of minutes.

I don't expect things to stay this way over the next few years, if the underlying defect in Windows Update is still unfixed. But at least the situation is more tolerable now.

Edit: or at any rate, tolerable for someone who uses Linux for day to day work! I'll have to make a sysprep'd image of the install at some point though.

 

Anyone having problems with Win 7 updates go to this posting and starting reading replies from that point on: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/bork-tuesday-any-problems-yet.370217/page-95#post-2595154

 

I set Windows update service to Automatic start and run it. Then I let it find updates by itself and it did so in few hours (while I was using computer). I then logged in as Administrator, installed them and disabled Windows update service again. It's much better than watching Searching for updates going nowhere

 

Hi everyone, I posted yesterday in another thread https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/bork-tuesday-any-problems-yet.370217/page-96#post-2595905.
I hadn't seen this thread, which seems more appropiate.
I have had some success today on my fresh install of windows 7. I found a link, that said , to go to control panel > system and security > it seems here it can vary, but on my desktop it is action centre > trouble shoot common probems , on the laptop it was find and fix problems > then on the left view all > then right click on windows update and choose run as administrator .
It still took about an hour and a half, but it found 180 updates

 

ronjor, Thanks!

 

Thank you for info, ronjor. Update check, download and install took less than 5 minutes. Will see how next month's updates will behave.

 

They claimed to have fixed the issue in prior Windows Update Clients and didn't. I'll believe this one when I see it work consistently month after month...

 

I don't see anything about it addressing Vista which has the same issue. Maybe there's another one for Vista and ronjor just posted the Win 7 one. Personally I just don't care any more. If M$ can't fix it I'll just quit installing updates or move to another OS.