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#1
Windows Update stuck checking.
So we have this Acer laptop that, of course, came with all kinds of crap installed that starts up with it.
Getting tired of hearing about how slow the thing is, I disabled a half dozen things (MyWinLocker, LaunchManager, some other crap) that aren't essential, leaving a few things from Intel, MSSE, etc.
Having done that, I restarted it. All was well. Then I opened the Task Manager to kill the GWX process (I hadn't disabled it on that machine yet), and noticed two things:
1. TrustedInstaller.exe would eat a bunch of CPU power, then a large amount of memory, then go back to normal.
2. Immediately following that, one particular instance of svchost.exe starting using 50% of the CPU, and used a massive amount of memory (around 30%), and just stayed there.
So I started looking in to that problem. It shouldn't be sitting there idling at 50% CPU usage, for various reasons. I waited and waited, it would not go away.
One of the possible solutions I found was to disable Microsoft Update. I checked Windows Update settings, and MS Update was indeed enabled, so I disabled that, and also set Windows Update to NOT install anything automatically. The option to re-enable MS Update is now gone.
At this point, Windows Update thought I'd never updated the system, so I clicked "Check for updates" and that's where it sits. Also worth noting, there was a bunch of failed updates from yesterday, including the Upgrade to Windows 10 Home.
For obvious reasons, I'm waiting to decide whether or not I upgrade. That was the plan for that laptop, too, but because Windows Update was set to automatically download AND install stuff, apparently tried to upgrade, and it failed.
Also worth noting, Windows has started telling me that the product is not genuine, via WatUX. I'd actually poked around and found an old thread from these forums about a possible fix for that, which involves rebuilding the Licensing Store. I have not done this yet; I want to fix these other issues first. (However, the system properties show Windows as both activated, and genuine. No idea what's going on here.)
Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions here? I've sat and screwed with this thing for a good 1.5 hours now, and am fixing to send it in to orbit instead.
Edit: I'm also just now seeing the posting instructions for this particular forum. As far as downloading those utilities and collecting logs goes, I'll have to do that and amend my thread later, as the laptop in question is currently in use. I didn't notice any error codes for the failed updates from yesterday, either, as I can only see in the update history that they failed. (And didn't poke around as to why.) But I'm still certainly open to what people think I should do here.