outerbank Posted June 27, 2016 Report Share Posted June 27, 2016 Anyone experiencing a problem with MS updates? For some reason my laptop runs continuously searching for updates and never stops. Cannot download any MS updates. The website Windows Seven forum has a lengthy discussion about this problem with numerous solutions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon Posted June 28, 2016 Report Share Posted June 28, 2016 Last time I updated a Windows 7 machine it sat there "searching" for between 4 and 6 hours. It finally came up with some updates, and I left it for a couple of hours to apply them. I have a 50 Mbit connection, so it isn't connection speed that limits update speed. Perhaps the Updates Center is overloaded, pushing out Windows 10 to all the users who don't want it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outerbank Posted June 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2016 The strange thing about the inability to search for and download updates on the laptop, is that the desktop computer which also has a Win 7 OS doesn't appear to have the same problem. Some of the posters to the Windows Seven forum believe that MS is purposefully not doing anything to correct the problem. They believe that MS wants to force users into Win 10. Judging by the date of the first posting to the forum, the problem has been around for a lengthy time. Viewing the updates that have successfully downloaded and installed on my laptop, the problem first occurred in June of this year. That's the last month of successful downloads and installs of updates on the laptop. Since then the search for updates did find updates, but apparently failed to install after they were downloaded and installation was attempted. Now the laptop gets stuck at the search function and never finds them, even though I know there are updates. I have tried several of the suggested cures that appear on the Win 7 forum. None have worked thus far. Even the MS Mr. Fixit didn't solve the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdanteek Posted June 28, 2016 Report Share Posted June 28, 2016 W-7 Ultimate Desktop, it's been searching for updates for a hour! As you can see I'm not a big updater and think they are over rated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_deweywright Posted June 28, 2016 Report Share Posted June 28, 2016 Assuming it's the same problem I've seen, you can stop it by going into Services, find the "Windows Update" service, and stop it. At one point, there was actually an update that was supposed to fix that problem, which was causing our PCs at work to go into "slower than molasses" mode. Of course, our IT group didn't authorize that update for months. (Services can be found this way: Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdanteek Posted June 28, 2016 Report Share Posted June 28, 2016 Looks to me like Windows Update has some problems! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outerbank Posted June 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2016 The laptop computer finally finished searching for updates and found 40 recommended and 8 optional, some going back to February 2015. Compared these recently found updates to the updates currently installed on the laptop to determine if any are duplicates. None are. My practice is to only install updates that seem necessary, and I've avoided updates related to upgrading to Win 10, but it's surprising how many have been missed. Several are related to Net Framework updates, and 14 are security related. Now I've encountered a problem with installing those updates. After selecting just a few of the updates to install and then clicking on the install button, install just runs and runs without completing any install. Will make another attempt this morning and just let the computer run for awhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outerbank Posted June 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2016 Here's the latest on downloading and installing updates. Selected one update to download and install. It was a cumulative IE 11 update. I didn't sit in front of the laptop while it was in the process of downloading and installing. As best I can determine it took about 15 minutes to complete the process. At this rate, it might take a week to complete all the 40 updates that were found. UGGH! I may just not go through the download and install process after determining if the updates are absolutely necessary. It does make one wonder if indeed Microsoft is purposefully screwing with the download and updating process. It's quite evident that they want to move as many Windows users as possible to Win 10. I am quite reluctant based on the numerous negative comments about the slimmed down NXT4, which would have to be installed when using Win 10. I'm quite happy with Creator 2011. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon Posted June 28, 2016 Report Share Posted June 28, 2016 I have three machines which I "updated" to Windows 10, so I can clean-install Windows 10 on them again and it will auto-activate. However only one of them is actually running Windows 10 now. The other two are back running Windows 7, and XP. [Never bothered with 8.1] It seems I have the best of all worlds this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdanteek Posted June 29, 2016 Report Share Posted June 29, 2016 Took me about five hours to get 90 some down and installed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outerbank Posted June 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2016 My computer was set to check for updates and ran for 6 hours before the list of updates appeared. That was yesterday. Nine updates were selected out of the 30 updates available for download and install. The computer has been on downloading updates for a little over an hour this morning. Thus far it shows zero updates downloaded. There must be a problem with MS update, not users computers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outerbank Posted June 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2016 Here is an interesting article about MS updates related to Win 7 at www.infoworld.com/Article/3055885, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sknis Posted June 29, 2016 Report Share Posted June 29, 2016 Here is an interesting article about MS updates related to Win 7 at www.infoworld.com/Article/3055885, Link doesn't work for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_deweywright Posted June 29, 2016 Report Share Posted June 29, 2016 Yeah... I noticed that too. Try this: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3055885/microsoft-windows/its-time-for-microsoft-to-fix-the-windows-7-update-slowdowns.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outerbank Posted June 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2016 Sorry about the link in my post. It worked when it was tried with Google. deweywright's link works. It seems like an informative Windows website. I've clicked on previous articles within this website and learned more info about MS updates than what MS provides, including those KB updates related to upgrading to Win 10. Now that this website has been found, I am going to continue to follow it closely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outerbank Posted June 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2016 Finally got through downloading and installing the 34 updates. Did it in multiples of 9 or so updates at a time. The average time required to complete each download and install was slightly over 3 hours per session. The overall process took more time because each update was scrutinized to avoid downloading and installing updates related to configuring the computer for updating to Win 10. I've read that in some instances a computer was automatically converted to Win 10 without the knowledge or approval of the owner. In fact, in one report the owner sued Microsoft for $10,000, and in this instance Microsoft decided not to fight and just pay the money to the litigant. If anyone wants to avoid updating to Win 10 there is a application called Never10 that can be downloaded and installed that prevents a conversion. When it is run a window appears indicating if your computer has the KB update that accommodates Win 10, it will then show a button for disabling Win 10. If at a later date you wish to convert to Win 10, the app is run again upon which the enable button is activated. Hence, the app should be downloaded and installed where it can be easily found. Having stated that for the foreseeable future I'm not interested in converting to Win 10, of the Gurus that use Win 10, what has been your experience? Is it user friendly? Do you like it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdanteek Posted June 30, 2016 Report Share Posted June 30, 2016 If anyone wants to avoid updating to Win 10 there is a application called Never10 that can be downloaded and installed that prevents a conversion. Thanks for that, done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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