It's time for Microsoft to fix the Windows 7 update slowdowns

MS can fix this in an instant - an SP2 for W7. Make it a download from their website to free up the windows update service. Yeah I know, they will not do it because W7 is in extended support.

It is too bad that no one else is able or willing to create a W7 SP2 either. I guess it could be done under VM - download but do not install the updates and save that as an image - for re-use whenever a clean install is required. Possible???

Then there is always Autopatcher - anyone tried it?

Borg 386 said:

Callender said:

I had installed KB3146706 and got a couple of BSOD's on shutdown. Apparently if EMET is used it can cause application hangs especially if KB3147071 is also installed.

Actually I removed both updates - rebooted - and reinstalled KB3146706.

There have been no more problems.

KB3146706 causes additional 15 seconds to reboot process

I saw it was unchecked & decided to leave it be for now, saw your post on it & EMET, which I am running on this OS. Thanks for the info on that. I'll get to checking for the other update & uninstall/reinstall both at a later time.

You know, when it comes down to everything, why are we being forced to jump though hoops just to get security updates? MS apparently doesn't care about it's 7 customers anymore or just hopes they'll switch to Ten.

The fix suggested by Thrash worked on the 7 64 happy, I have yet to address the 7 64 on this PC, but I'm seriously investigating some of the tools in the link I posted (4 tools to update windows offline) to see about getting my updates another way.

Ding ding ding.

It doesn't take a detective to surmise that whatever is causing the slow searches and high memory usage from the svchost(s), came from a previous windows update. Accidentally, sure however, it is apparent that MS is in no hurry to find a solution for the problem or worse, simply is not concerned about finding one anytime soon.

I usually leave WU turned on, but set to never download and do so monthly manually however, the high memory usage that the svchost recently began to use was alarming, so I disabled the update service and magically the problem went away (which is strange since it was set to never download, yet the process was running high as if it was searching in the background despite my wishes)

I thought this may have been an isolated issue, until I recently went to my mother's house. While there, I updated her computer for her, which I always do and thus, have the same setup on her computer as mine and noticed the same issues. The first thing she said to me was how the fan was running so loudly lately and described that she was experiencing noticeable lagging. Granted her setup is on an old vista era, bare minimum requirement capable 7 machine, but she had never had such problems until the last month or so. (at least, to her recollection)

After disabling the WU, her machine was running smoothly again, but I began to think about what she and many others like her would have done if a shiny "get windows 10" icon was sitting in her icon tray (it isn't as I made sure there is zero trace of 10 on the computer) With one click all those problems could go away, hassle free.

Again, I don't think MS would have deliberately sabotaged people's setups however, whatever the reason, people are having issues with the updating process and MS seems to care very little about as much. In fact, this little incident looks to have become a happy accident in terms of "convincing" people to upgrade to 10, as the solution, if there is one seems rather complicated fro even people like us on the boards, let a lone the average user. MS may or may not have a solution to this situation, but in any case, they're aren't in any hurry to fix the problem, which judging from a variety of forums (here and others) and personal experience, this has been going on for a while now.

Disappointing to say the least as it almost seems like a strong-arming tactic that can easily be played off as accidental ignorance on MS part

Windows 7 updates are just as slow here in Australia. So something has changes since MS introduced Windows 10 & provided free upgrading. One could be cynical & say they are trying to force 7 users over to 10 & so far there does not seem to be any other reason.

Microsoft Security Essential updates occur quickly & easily, so the problem is with Windows 7 updates. Even Office 2013 updates don't have any trouble. Office 2013 updates are independent of Windows updates & do not show up in the usual update program.

Berkey said:

Ding ding ding.

It doesn't take a detective to surmise that whatever is causing the slow searches and high memory usage from the svchost(s), came from a previous windows update. Accidentally, sure however, it is apparent that MS is in no hurry to find a solution for the problem or worse, simply is not concerned about finding one anytime soon. .

I actually resorted to removing all Windows Update Client/ Agent updates back to the original and then completely reinstalled Windows Update from scratch avoiding those earlier WUC/ WUA's and force installing a later version.

It took around three days to fix properly including not allowing Windows Update Service to run until fixes were complete and some steps needed to be done without an internet connection.

Bonus: I even got my update notification icon back.

Callender said:

Berkey said:

Ding ding ding.

It doesn't take a detective to surmise that whatever is causing the slow searches and high memory usage from the svchost(s), came from a previous windows update. Accidentally, sure however, it is apparent that MS is in no hurry to find a solution for the problem or worse, simply is not concerned about finding one anytime soon. .

I actually resorted to removing all Windows Update Client/ Agent updates back to the original and then completely reinstalled Windows Update from scratch avoiding those earlier WUC/ WUA's and force installing a later version.

It took around three days to fix properly including not allowing Windows Update Service to run until fixes were complete and some steps needed to be done without an internet connection.

Bonus: I even got my update notification icon back.

What is the original update client :)

ThrashZone said:

What is the original update client :)

Maybe I should re-phrase that. I removed all or any of the following.

   Note

KB 2990214- Apr 2015 - WUC: enables ability to upgrade to Win10
KB 3050265 - Jun 2015 - WUC: allows Group Policy to set "DisableOS Upgrade" key (replaces 2990214)
KB 3065987 - Jul 2015 - WUC: unspecified "improvements" (replaces 3050265)
KB 3075851 - Aug 2015 - WUC: fixes mess due to KB3065987 [cuts down WUC memory usage, but hides Update notifications if GWX app is active] (replaces 3065987)
KB 3083324 - Sep 2015 - WUC: unspecified "improvements" (replaces 3075851)
KB 3083710 - Oct 2015 - WUC: unspecified "improvements" (replaces 3083324)
KB 3102810 - Nov 2015 - WUC: fixes slow updates & high CPU usage (replaces 3083710)
KB 3112343 - Dec 2015 WUC: fix for issues with 3050265 (replaces 3102810)
KB 3135445 - Feb 2016 WUC: unspecified "improvements" (replaces 3112343)
KB 3138612- Mar 2016 WUC: unspecified "improvements" (replaces 3135445)

As far as I know KB2990214 is the one that's known to cause problems. Anyway after removing anything in the above list I force installed a later version (in my case KB3102810) but only after a complete removal of Windows Updates.

I assume that the original WUC is whatever was left installed after removing everything back to KB2990214 but I can't state which version of WUC was earlier.

Thanks okay the clean install miracle maker client kb3102810 :)
As far as I know I'm using March's client on all machines it works just the 32 bit machine needed a tad more work to get it working correctly in April = no telling why March's updates were straight away on all 3 :/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3138612

logo897 said:

My I haven't seen the update alert in ages! Will that stay forever, or will it only be temporarily? I wouldn't mind having that back permanently.

Who can say. Actually I suppose that I should mention that I also ran "SecPod Saner" around the same time. I don't recommend it except for advanced users who have a system image backup and who can attempt to understand that some of what it detects may not require any fix.

Edit: It will also attempt to download "Get Windows 10 app" if left to it's own devices. It does respect DisableOSUpgrade and DisableGWX registry entries.

It did download something that fixed wuapp.exe that had stopped working. "Start> All Programs> Windows Update"

%windir%\system32\wuapp.exe startmenu

You can pin that to the start menu anyway:

Windows Update Shortcut - Create in Windows 7

ThrashZone said:

The clean install miracle maker client kb3102810 :)
As far as I know I'm using March's client on all machines it works just the 32 bit machine needed a tad more work to get it working correctly in April = no telling why March's updates were straight away on all 3 :/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3138612

Here's what I've got now from that list of WUC's:

Ha yep kb3112343 was a important update might be the one screwing up clean installs I really didn't do very good detective work on why clean installs went so badly :)