I do a lot of system building and this has been a major issue for Windows 7 installations. Windows 8 and 10 have not this issue at all. Windows update agent 7.6 seems to be the root cause of the update issues. Microsoft has been no help with these issues either. Honestly, I think they are trying to force people to Windows 10.
I've installed several systems with the same issues. Once the update process hangs, I waited around 16 hours and I could update from the update server without any issues.
I've done many installations previously without this issue and considering the updates were the same, it must be the windows update service is not functioning like previously.
In my opinion, Microsoft is making it difficult to update Windows 7 systems to force people to upgrade to Windows 10.
If Microsoft wants to interfere with the product that I purchased legally, they need to pay me several hunderd dollars and I'll give it back to them, no problem.
Hello
don't mean to jump in as new to forum. I was thinking it was MS also trying to mandatory automatic update and the Microsoft store. I been declining the upgrade out of spite. I can not believe I can not fix the update issue. The only thing I have not tried yet is set to automatically update and opt out off Microsoft Updates. I'd bet I wake up and see WX on my laptop.
Is this of any help? (See end of thread)
Windows Update Error 0x80070005 Following Activation Work-Around
My solution to this exact issue (automatic updates working well but when switched to manual updates it waits searching for updates forever) was surprisingly very simple. Open network adapter settings (the one where the internet is connected) and force set DNS servers to Google - 8.8.8.8 and the second to 8.8.4.4. Voila ! Manual update finished immediately and now works without any problem.
Fix that worked for me was to change the DNS of my IPv4 to the servers outlined by pprovaz, reboot, then let updates run for 30 minutes while I nipped out, came back to find the updates icon on the shutdown button, so I shutdown and the updates began to install, repeated the waiting and shutting down process a few times and all is now working as it should.
PS: Not a fan of Windows 8/8.1/X.
After battling with WU on my HDD install 2 years ago & managed to get it working, then installing a new SSD drive last week & then installing Win7, then updating WU itself, it was still stuck on 'checking for updates'. I remember from reading a post back when using the hdd's OS, that if I clicked the start button and saw the shield icon on the shutdown button (updates waiting to be installed by restarting) it would install them, then check for more updates after restarting, but it stuck on "searching for updates' again.
What fixed it for me was by simply changing it to Install Updates Automatically (recommended) from 'check for updates, but...' and then rebooting. It wasn't 2 minutes later I had 180+ important updates to install.
I had hidden the three nefarious "Get Win 10" 'optional updates' beforehand so I never had the GSX nag screens, etc. & WU is still working well. I don't see why users don't get a restart prompt from the systray when WU needs to restart to install the updates, which I believe causes WU to stall. If users don't know about looking on the start button & seeing the shield icon that indicates WU needs to install updates by restarting, WU will stay stuck on 'searching' until they restart.
Had similar issue. Factory restored 7 and couldn't get windows update to stop hanging. Factory restore, get as far as you can with windows update before it hangs, force restart then manually install these.
KB3083710
KB3102810
KB3020369
KB3050265
KB3172605
I can't remember if I was forced to upgrade to IE11 to download but if the windows links don't work IE11 will sort. Restart whenever prompted then about 200 or so updates will appear. Takes a couple hours to install the 200 no way to avoid it.
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