Windows update never stops checking for updates

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.

aoetalks said:

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.

Many thanks... it works
i have same problem like Thread Starter.
just instaled windows 7 home premium, checking update took forever.

after installing this, just few minutes i it comes up with bunch of update lists, 1,98 GB update

NB: i am registering to this forum just to say thank you

I'm currently re-installing a laptop for a friend after a hard disk failure corrupted his system. The hardware is completely different to the systems I previously reported this problem with, but it appears to be suffering the same problem. Right now it's been trying to install the "update for windows update" which is necessary before you can even start to look for other updates for ~1.5 hours. I've also have quite a few instances of regular windows updates for systems which are mostly up to date taking hours at a time for only a handful of updates. Either MS have blacklisted my IP address or they are trying to force people onto Windows 10 by making updates for older versions so slow you switch through frustration.

Note, Linux running on the same hardware can find and install the same volume of updates in a fraction of the time.

No specific response to this post is needed, I'm posting this for informational purposes only. I'm just going to leave the laptop running in the expectation it will get there eventually.

tim1mw said:

...Right now it's been trying to install the "update for windows update" which is necessary before you can even start to look for other updates for ~1.5 hours....

That update can be skipped. I've skipped it many times. Just install the latest Windows Update Client instead.

I would do these steps...
Windows Update - Reset

...and then read/follow the info in this post:
Update issues

aoetalks said:

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.

I have just registered to say a big "Thank You" !

After I found out that the reset.bat file somewhere mentioned didn't work for me, I tried your trick.
At first it didn't work, but after a reboot and trying the same thing again, it finally worked!

My own laptop is currently being painfully slow running updates, it's been looking for an hour now and not gotten anywhere. Part of me wonders if this is Microsoft retribution for removing and blocking KB3035583 (The windows 10 update nag).

I also read here: Microsoft pushes Windows 10 upgrade to PCs without user consent | Computerworld that MS are now pushing out the Windows 10 installer to peoples computers whether they want it or not. I'm wondering if this partially explains the slowness of updates for new installations, since it adds quite a few GB to an already large download. I ran them new install updates overnight, so wasn't paying attention to bandwidth usage.

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.

KB3102810 didn't have much impact for me, after reading about it here I cancelled the update, installed KB3102810 manually (which took about 2 hours) and tried again. It still took a further 3-4 hours to install following ~12 updates.