windows 7 update stuck at "checking for updates..."

Registered to say thanks Howy.

After encountering the update issue and investigating the maze of possible solutions i installed your fix (12 Feb 2016) https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3138612
This was the first and only attempt to sort the problem and it worked perfectly.

swanny said:

vickyv said:

This has worked for me every time:

The solution:

Stop the Windows Update Service (wuauserv).
Download and install KB3050265
reboot
Download and install KB3102810
Reboot and check for updates again. All of our machines found their required updates in less than 5 minutes.

Thank you, This worked for me. I made an account just to thank you and to let others know that this worked for me. It did still take about 15 minutes before it downloaded them so just be patient.

Fresh install of Windows 7 home premium 64bit with a new SSD. Was driving me nuts, stuck at updating screen on windows update and standalone update (not to mention all the drivers I had to hunt down and install). Like others I have spent the last 2 days searching and reading posts and trying what was advised, let it run , reinstall , turn this off etc. But this worked . Installing 244 updates as I am typing this.
So again thank you.

This solution worked for me. A new install on a new machine (Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit upgraded to Win 7 Professional).

I had the never ending 'checking for updates' stuck for hours.

After installing the updates above, Windows Update ran for around 10 minutes and then started to download the usual deluge of updates. Result.!

Thanks.!

Offline update is the only thing that worked for me. Took me about 7 hours and about 3GB of data.

Hi. My issues were fixed (in Windows 7) with KB3161608 published 21st June 2016. Download and run the standalone installer from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3161608 . It is marked as an optional update so will not be installed automatically even whenWindows Update is working ok. Hope it helps.

vickyv said:

This has worked for me every time:

The solution:

Stop the Windows Update Service (wuauserv).
Download and install KB3050265
reboot
Download and install KB3102810
Reboot and check for updates again. All of our machines found their required updates in less than 5 minutes.

I made an account just to say that this solution worked for me. I did a win 7 fresh install, and after sp1, updater stopped working (searching for update never ends). Vickyv says that after this fix updater found the updates withen 5 mins, my system took about 15.

Also, after updater found 165 updates, it hung on 0% for a long time. I just let it sit for about an hour and it all started pouring in.

Edit: Also WTH is with Microsoft and not being able to fresh install win 7 without jumping through hoops?!

"Also WTH is with Microsoft and not being able to fresh install win 7 without jumping through hoops?!"

What hoops are you referring to?

SteveKt said:

Hi. My issues were fixed (in Windows 7) with KB3161608 published 21st June 2016. Download and run the standalone installer from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3161608 . It is marked as an optional update so will not be installed automatically even whenWindows Update is working ok. Hope it helps.

This is what worked for me. Sort of...

When I clicked SteveKt's link i got a notice that KB3161608 was "superseded by July 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (KB3172605) that was released on July 21, 2016." KB3172605 Is what ended up working for me.

Thanks Steve! ... and everyone else here for taking your time to help us out.

On a laptop which hadn't been updated since March, sitting in a cupboard under the stairs, and after a day of frustration and much searching of the net, I finally got the update process to work using the following method.

1. download the following update https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=53187 KB3168965 it's the July update to fix the 'windows update slow download' problem,
2. stop the windows update service via a command prompt run as administrator, click start, type cmd, right click cmd.exe select run as administrator. paste into cmd the following command 'net stop wuauserv' without the quotes, and press enter
3. go to where you downloaded the update KB3168965 double click to run and allow it fully install following the instuctions
4. reboot computer
5. check windows update service has restarted, click start, type services, click services, scroll down to windows update, under status it should say started, if not 'start the service' by clicking start the service at the top left of the open window
6. run windows update and if lucky like me you should recieve updates soon after, although do allow a little time as the update servers seem to be not playing ball with windows 7

Hope this helps someone

vickyv said:

This has worked for me every time:

The solution:

Stop the Windows Update Service (wuauserv).
Download and install KB3050265
reboot
Download and install KB3102810
Reboot and check for updates again. All of our machines found their required updates in less than 5 minutes.

Make sure the windows update service did not restart if the manual update KB3050265 get's stuck installing.

Thanks for your post Vicky

swanny said:

vickyv said:

This has worked for me every time:

The solution:

Stop the Windows Update Service (wuauserv).
Download and install KB3050265
reboot
Download and install KB3102810
Reboot and check for updates again. All of our machines found their required updates in less than 5 minutes.

Thank you, This worked for me. I made an account just to thank you and to let others know that this worked for me. It did still take about 15 minutes before it downloaded them so just be patient.

Fresh install of Windows 7 home premium 64bit with a new SSD. Was driving me nuts, stuck at updating screen on windows update and standalone update (not to mention all the drivers I had to hunt down and install). Like others I have spent the last 2 days searching and reading posts and trying what was advised, let it run , reinstall , turn this off etc. But this worked . Installing 244 updates as I am typing this.
So again thank you.

I also just made an account to say that this worked for me. Thank you.