Windows update never stops checking for updates

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.

+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.

KB3102810 (October's update) has been replaced with a newer version of the Windows Update Client.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).

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 said:

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

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.

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 :-(

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....?

Darkstrike said:

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: Windows Update - Reset