Windows Update takes ages to check for updates.

[Kick]

Hi,

I've set Windows Update so that I choose when it searches for updates, downloads them and installs them. The first stage (searching for updates) has always been on the sluggish side. I usually start the process on the Wednesday immediately following 'Patch' Tuesday and have found, in the past, that it takes about and hour to two hours for Windows Update to identify the available updates but the actual downloading and installing is somewhat quicker. Today, Thursday 15 December 2016 (two days after 'Patch' Tuesday), was exceptionally slow for the first stage which took a few minutes under 6 hours.

I don't know what's going on at Microsoft. After their rather dubious methods to encourage users to 'upgrade' to Windows 10, I hope they are not continuing to play a dirty game to discourage the use of of 'supported' operating systems pre-dating Windows 10.

 

[DSTM]

Every fresh install of Windows7 I go directly to Microsoft and download all the updates.
Takes minutes, rather than hours or days the normal way.

http://www.howtogeek.com/255435/how...l-at-once-with-microsofts-convenience-rollup/.

 

[Kick]

Thanks for that DSTM. That link will be useful if I have to undertake a fresh install but at the moment, despite a few minor problems on my system including a regular volsnap error occurring and removing all my restore points (I'll start a new thread about that), I hope not to do that for awhile.

 

[plodr]

Three of the Win 7's take between 2 and 5 minutes to list the updates. The fourth takes perhaps 20.

Make sure you have these updates installed:listed for Win 7 in the first chart
http://wu.krelay.de/en/

 

[Kick]

Three of the Win 7's take between 2 and 5 minutes to list the updates. The fourth takes perhaps 20.

Make sure you have these updates installed:listed for Win 7 in the first chart
http://wu.krelay.de/en/

Thanks for the link Plodr. I discovered that the July Rollover KB3172605, that was in the link's list, was missing from my computer (the other two were installed) so that is now installed. Next week I should find out if Windows Update improves its search speed.

Cheers and regards.

 

[plodr]

I think it will. I know people who had issues, installed it and update started working properly.

 

[Kick]

I think it will. I know people who had issues, installed it and update started working properly.

Thanks Plodr - its good to be able to pick up such information people so willing to help on forums like this.
Regards.

 

[Kick]

Thanks Plodr - its good to be able to pick up such information people so willing to help on forums like this.
Regards.

Hi Plodr,

This is to confirm that your suggestion to provide a resolution for my very slow Windows Update searches has indeed solved the problem. Today, the Wednesday after the January 2017 Patch Tuesday, I checked for Windows updates and they appeared virtually immediately. So many thanks for alerting me to the cause of the problem and apologies to Microsoft for suggesting that the slowness of update searches might have been part of a cunning plot to try to persuade me to give up Windows 7 in favour of Windows 10.

 

[plodr]

Great. There are currently more Win 7 users than Win 10 users so we have to make sure we keep our computers working through January 2020! We have four Windows 7 computers in our home and I'm tech support for my husband. I'm in charge of keeping them all updated, patched and running as smooth as possible.