Does it take over 5 hours to 'check' a years worth of updates ?

My brothers W7 Pro laptop was last updated Jan 2015, he was then diagnosed with Alzheimer and so the laptop got a bit forgotten about.

Anyway, I decided to charge it back up and see if it still worked, it did and started the Windows Update 'Checking for Updates.....' with the green sliding bar. It has now been running about 5 hours and is still 'Checking for Updates......

I do not know if this is a realistic time scale or if Update is having a bit of a wobbly, or its stuck somewhere going nowhere. Any suggestions?

Yup. It could take all night. Been there, done that.

Regards,
GEWB

Thanks for fast reply GEWB, I have another 6 hours or so to go before bed so hope it will be finished by then.....
I did not want to leave it on charge overnight if not finished but will have to I suppose or lose what it has already 'checked' Just installed new smoke detectors so hope this won't test them!!

Trapper said:

Thanks for fast reply GEWB, I have another 6 hours or so to go before bed so hope it will be finished by then.....
I did not want to leave it on charge overnight if not finished but will have to I suppose or lose what it has already 'checked' Just installed new smoke detectors so hope this won't test them!!

I'd let it run 24-36 hours .

As a test I'm loading a fresh Win7 Home in a new VM. First update check after fresh install is currently on hour number 12.

Regards,
GEWB

Check took 16 hours. Returned about 160 recommended and about 60 optional updates.

Time to blow it away.

Regards,
GEWB

Lady Fitzgerald said:

Install them in goups of no more than 10-15 at a time, starting with the oldest ones first.

Good advice for 95% of the members out here!

As for me, time to delete the VDI image as I have no use for another Windows installation - I still have seven installations of five versions but most of my work is now done under Linux Mint (except Adobe RoboHelp, Lightroom and Corel VidioStudio).

Regards,
GEWB