Solved Windows update never stops checking for updates

[sparky2891]

KB3102810 fixed it!

KB3102810 fixed it, kudos to the poster.
After installing that update and restarting windows update instantly started downloading updates.
It will still say it is searching for updates, but if you navigate to your C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder you will begin to see it filling up with those glorious update files

many thanks again

 

[Chippyboy]

I've registered for a couple of reasons:

1. To say a very big thank-you to aoetalks for his most excellent fix! I've been struggling with this for days and finally found your solution. Thank-you!

2. To say what a complete and utter, unmitigated pile of steaming horseshit Windows - in all its forms - has become.

This utter manure of an OS has become completely unusable. Microsoft should delete the source code, delete the binaries and format their servers, burn the backups, bomb their DR sites. AND START AGAIN from scratch.

No more of this utter utter utter dross, PLEASE.

 

[Ztruker]

I've registered for a couple of reasons:

1. To say a very big thank-you to aoetalks for his most excellent fix! I've been struggling with this for days and finally found your solution. Thank-you!

2. To say what a complete and utter, unmitigated pile of steaming horseshit Windows - in all its forms - has become.

This utter manure of an OS has become completely unusable. Microsoft should delete the source code, delete the binaries and format their servers, burn the backups, bomb their DR sites. AND START AGAIN from scratch.

No more of this utter utter utter dross, PLEASE.

And yet Windows 10 runs perfectly on my Toshiba and Dell laptops and Lenovo desktop. No problems, hangs, BSODs or weirdness. I like it and think it's a very good OS. The same was true when I had Windows 7 then 8 and 8.1. I guess a lot of problems have to do with what hardware you have and perhaps how you use your computer.

I'm not a gamer and I don't overclock. I don't feel the need to modify themes, just use what's available. I'm just a boring, average user who browses the internet, writes E-mail and does a little programming.

I guess Dross, like Beauty, is in the eye of the beholder

 

[bk15]

Win 7 update and Win 10 install Solved!!!

Although I have used this forum on and off for years, I Registered today just to post that this solved my Checking-for-Updates hell.

Different from other posters, My goal was to update a laptop to *Windows 10* from a fresh Windows 7 install.

• I had created a *FRESH* Win 7 Home x64 (Sp1) installation.. multiple times!
• I wasn’t sure if Win 10 upgrade required a specific level of win 7 to update so attempted to run Windows update -- which never worked. I left it for hours. But this then became a test.
• During and before the last step I also attempted to install Win 10. It downloaded and prepped everything except *always* hung on the Updating Step at %0 complete. At this point I figured out that the two problems were connected (I assume) – if Win7 couldn’t update neither could the Win10 install find updates!
• Solution: After finding that kb3102810 might be a solution, I navigated to that page.
  Problem 1 - kb3102810 website wouldn’t load in IE. WTF? Ok, installed chrome to view site and download update.
  Problem 2 - kb3102810 fix hung when attempting to install (checking for updates) until I rebooted and then could properly install it.
• After that step, everything went very smoothly. Windows 7 Update found 130x updates within 10 minutes -- Didn’t bother to update since I knew windows update was working.
• Ran Win10 update – found all updates within requirements within seconds and the rest is history.. Win 10 in now installed and working within 1.5 hours from start.

So to those of you who think its something related to MS pushing for windows update instead, imo this is clearly not the case. There is something seriously broken (and from the sound of the sudden surge in similar issues recently, this is a pretty new -within last few months). My thought is that it is a change on Microsofts update servers as I was using a ISO I downloaded from their site which I created and used successfully many times in the past to install and update systems. Additionally, I also think MS needs some compatibility solution for viewing their site with older versions of the browser!!

Thanks again for solving this!!!

 

[noxcovenant]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3102810 should speed things up. After installing this it took only a few minutes to scan for updates on a fresh Win7 SP1 install.

This worked for me and I tried ALL the solutions.

This should only gets its own thread. It's such a simple fix.

Thanks!

 

[CJSommervold]

Updating the install.wim file before installing seems to work.

Alternatively, update the install.wim and then use it to perform a repair install on your existing installation.

Several ways to do it. All involve copy and paste the installation dvd to the hard drive, then mount the wim image and install updates using dism. Some programs will automate it for you.

Example:

UpdatePack7R2-15.8.20.exe /ie11 /WimFile=K:\GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD\sources\install.wim /Index=3

The dvd has been copied to K: and the image to be updated is 3 (professional).


OR (probably easier for beginners)

Use WUD to download the updates into folders, then integrate into your install.wim using wintoolkit (easiest) or ntlite (free version will do, more complicated ) or similar.

Download WUD250B1002Setup.exe

wintoolkit

https://www.ntlite.com/download/

Update lists:

View attachment 372405

View attachment 372406

This is AMAZING! thank you! I have a Windows 7 DVD that I got back in 2010 that will install any version of Windows 7 (Ultra - Starter) in either x86 or 64bit, but every time I had to do a fresh install it would find 210+ Windows Updates and would take HOURS to download / install. (Once it took 17 hours on a slower machine.)

Thank you for posting this - I knew there had to be a way of applying the updates to an image before installing it, but I couldn't find anything. Again - Thanks so much

 

[CJSommervold]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3102810 should speed things up. After installing this it took only a few minutes to scan for updates on a fresh Win7 SP1 install.

This worked for me and I tried ALL the solutions.

This should only gets its own thread. It's such a simple fix.

Thanks!

Same - I don't know if I tried ALL the solutions, but I have tried a lot over the past 3 days, but this update fixed it for me. Had to wait 20 mins for Windows Update to find anything after I installed it, but that was better than the 24+ hours I had been waiting for a laptop to do it automatically.

 

[mdemelli]

Another success story for KB3102810!!

Hi all,
Just wanted to echo the fine sentiments for he/they who found this as a fix...I was stuck for 2 days after a fresh install on my new boot SSD...and after installing the KB and rebooting, checked updates and it did not take long...a few minutes...to list 212 updates!!

Working my way through them in batches now...(learned that lesson on my last build!) and all is going smoothly....

Thanks again!! This truly is one of the best everything-Windows 7 forums around!! The more I read, the more I learn!

md

 

[Blackink]

Bing.....bing.....bing.....bing.....bing..... Success!!!

All I can say is Holy Crap...... what a nightmare Windows Upgrades can be.

I don't know who the person is that's responsible for finding the KB3102810 fix, but maybe they should think about running for President of the U.S.

I had Windows update running for several hours.....and I mean Several hours, with no results.

I finally came to this Web site: www.sevenforums.com. Once I saw the thread on Windows Updates taking forever to download and install, I started reading.

I, too, was skeptical about installing that patch/fix/ or whatever you call it, but once installed and a system reboot, within minutes I had over 200 updates ready to download...

Thank you....thank you....and thank you again.

That Microsoft Web page is now permanently bookmarked onto my computer, my flash drive, and my external back-up hard drive.

Unbelievable!!!!

This was by far the best Christmas present I received this year......

 

[legacy7955]

I have installed windows 7 twice on my laptop, dual boot.
On both installations I messed around to get fast updates, but without good results.
I just let the laptop on during night-time, and next morning I found out that updates had been installed.

Makes me wonder if it is MS, who created this delay, to pushing Windows 10 through the throat.

I noticed something VERY odd when I was installing a fresh copy of Windows 7 after the 5 yr old HDD failed in my parents HP pavilion p6680t. The original factory recovery disks copy was Windows 7 WITHOUT SP1, I had to install that BEFORE moving on to later updates, interestingly when I was searching for updates with Windows 7 ONLY the updates came quickly and easily, without any problem it took JUST MINUTES on my SLOOOW DSL 768/128k connection, as soon as I downloaded and installed SP1 and then installed Windows Update Agent 7.6.7600.320 the time needed to find and download updates became a day long affair....ALSO

Interestingly after hours I finally was able to download about 175 updates, ODDLY the ONLY
two updates that failed as some of the most critical .net (kb2937610) and IE 11 . Here is what happened all the other updates downloaded and installed PERFECTLY, when I looked at those two previously mentioned neither had automatically downloaded, and of course you need the .net update to install IE 11. When I tried to manually download and this is INTERESTING... I lost my internet connection to the MS servers about halfway though each download (internet light red) (error 0x80072efe) I could repeat this failure predictably as well. MS MVPs love to claim serious corruption or malware but I knew that NEITHER was the problem.....I THINK MS is actively trying to shut down connections to promote change to Windows 10....unfortunately for them they are driving many people away from MS entirely with this nonsense.

 

[nathankaa]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3102810 should speed things up. After installing this it took only a few minutes to scan for updates on a fresh Win7 SP1 install.

+1 here for this!!!! I also registered to say thanks for this.

Just a note, if you do download and run this and it hangs, restart and run again.

 

[UsernameIssues]

KB3102810 (October's update) has been replaced with a newer version of the Windows Update Client. Any replacement for KB3102810 should also include the fixes that were in KB3102810. As of this post, the latest Windows Update Client seems to be KB3112343 (December's update).

 

[Bako]

When I install a clean copy of Win7 Pro x64, then with WU SP1 and then .NET Framework 4 client and then looking for updates forever. After installing KB3102810 found about 228 new updates within 10 - 15 minutes. excellent.
KB3102810 it works great. many thanks for the help. the man who found it should get the Nobel Prize.

 

[Ztruker]

Same here:

Clean installed Win 7 Home X86.
Search for updates continuous, never end.
Installed KB3102810
20 minutes and I had 135 updates to download and install.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Same here:

Clean installed Win 7 Home X86.
Search for updates continuous, never end.
Installed KB3102810
20 minutes and I had 135 updates to download and install.

Never is a long time
You would have eventually gotten a list of updates.

There is no need to install KB3102810.
Use its replacement KB3112343.
Then you would only have 134 updates to download and install

 

[JustMakeItWork]

Another +1 for success, thanks to this thread!! I am also among those registering to say thanks to those who have taken the time to contribute within this forum!!

1. My situation was with a little e-machines netbook running Win7 "Starter Edition." I was noticing WU services were hogging resources yet making no progress finding updates regardless of every prior "fix" I tried out. I lived with this for nearly 7 months and could just not take the slooooow netbook anymore and happened upon this thread. As suggested by UsernameIssues, I tried out KB3112343 instead of KB3102810. I accessed the KB3112343 via "Method 2" as a "download package" for x86 and then ran download directly.
2. Once downloaded, the package took nearly 3-4 hours of "searching", but it DID finally work and magically all those long-over-due updates (some back as far as June/July 2015 in my case) showed up for me to elect installation upon. I accepted all the recommended updates through the December 2015 time frame. I appear to have just successfully installed 41 or so updates and am restarting netbook now...Success! Waiting a few weeks before I install any recommended updates released in Jan 2016.

 

[UsernameIssues]

JustMakeItWork,

Thanks for reporting your findings while using KB3112343 instead of KB3102810. This long Windows Update search time issue is somewhat random. I have a W7 pro 64bit SP1 Virtual Machine (VM) that stays frozen at the fresh install state. The first time that I ask it to look for updates, it tells me that I need to update the Windows Update software.

While researching info for this post, I tested the Windows Update search time while using the Windows Update Agent that W7 said I needed (e.g. I did not install one of the newer Windows Update Agents/Clients). The search time was about an hour. I have used that same VM in the past to see how long the Windows Update search time is for fresh installs and it has taken more than 20 hours... but sometimes I have gotten lucky and it has been relatively quick.

Some have suggested restarting the computer - to see if the computer connects to a different Windows Update server. [Restarting, searching for 30 minutes, restarting again, searching again - repeat until the search for updates takes about 20 minutes.] That "restart method" does seem to work; however, it is not a good work around. I used it for troubleshooting to try and figure out why the Windows Update search time for fresh installs has drastically increased during 2015. Maybe MS has changed the update servers to due to W10 distribution. Maybe W7 computers are given a lower priority. All we can do is speculate :-(

 

[Ztruker]

Same here:

Clean installed Win 7 Home X86.
Search for updates continuous, never end.
Installed KB3102810
20 minutes and I had 135 updates to download and install.

Never is a long time
You would have eventually gotten a list of updates.

There is no need to install KB3102810.
Use its replacement KB3112343.
Then you would only have 134 updates to download and install

Agreed, the last time I let it run over night I believe it took 14 hours or so. 20 minutes is much better.

 

[Darkstrike]

Hey all - having this same issue and installed the October and December Windows Update updates, but still can't seem to get Windows Update to finally stop "Checking for Updates" and give me a list....?

 

[UsernameIssues]

Hey all - having this same issue and installed the October and December Windows Update updates, but still can't seem to get Windows Update to finally stop "Checking for Updates" and give me a list....?

If it takes longer than 24 hours, then try: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91738-windows-update-reset.html