Why does Windows Update never finish scanning for updates? Seriously

Hi

I'm sure a lot of you have experienced this problem. Browsing through this forum, it is quite common, yet, I haven't found a reassuring solution. Can you help?

This is Windows 7 Home Premium. SP1 is installed. Windows was freshly installed.

Windows Update is scanning for updates. In fact it has been doing that for hours now to no avail. I seriously doubt it is doing anything at all. I think it's in a loop. There's little network traffic going through and CPU usage is very high. This Windows Update scan is taking forever, it never ever finishes.

What's more interesting, if you right click svchost.exe and choose show services, it's secret is revealed: this one is responsible for running wuauserv which is Windows Update.

This is happening on multiple computers in the house, and even on friends' computer. This is definitely not a local network problem.
This is also not some odd registry problem - we are talking about freshly installed systems.

Many of you suggest resetting Windows update using bat files. That doesn't seem to help me. After all, what would it reset, when it's so new anyway?

The only update installed is the Windows Update agent which was installed automatically.


Problems started when Microsoft released Windows 10. This must not be a coincidence. It is released on Windows update as a giant update package and I guess many people are still downloading it nowadays and that might be causing heavy traffic. But how come Windows update works fine on 8/8.1/10? And even on XP. But not on Windows 7

I have been using Windows 7 since 2009. I know it well. I never experienced a problem like this before. I do not (and have never) used any registry modding/cleaner/whatever tool.
It worked so fine before summer. Then it magically broke.

Why?
Please do comment if you are experiencing the same, even if you don't have a solution. I want to buzz this thread because it is a serious issue, it needs to get more attention. I'd also appreciate it if a moderator would escalate this thread to a sticky. Mods, you can also make any edits in this post you like to make it fit into a sticky. After all, similar threads open almost daily. It would be better to regroup this discussions from now on into one I think. Or at least make a common note on what we have so far.

So far this seems to be the only helpful trick I found: But not a solution.
update question

What were your results after installing the latest Windows Update Client KB3135445.

Guys

Thank you very much for your help!
It's working now! Yay I did it!

I'm posting what I did because it might be helpfulf for others:

This is after a FRESH install, assuming that you did not make any changes to windows update, not even resetting it.

1) Windows Update will possibly install an update called "Windows Update agent 7.6.7600.320". Let it be. By the way, it does not need a restart and it gets installed without confirmation and its not visible at all, but you can see it in history.
2) set windows update to MANUAL - "Do not search for updates autoamtically"
3) Install the hotfix KB 3135445 [link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3135445 ]
4) Restart
5) Leave it alone. DONT start manual searching yet
6) I checked it again next day, and then the windows update window changed color to yellow saying updates need to be checked for on this computer or something like that
7) Then check for updates
8) It found them within MINUTES. 200+ updates for me
9) You can start downloading, but prepare it's still slow as hell. But at least it's working again.
10) After any updates been installed you can change back to automatic updating

This list is not a verified guide, some of the steps above might be unneccessarry but I wanted to include everything I did. Still, I think it is a good starting point to solve this problem.

Basically it all comes down to this:
1. Install the hotfix mentioned above. It is the KEY to solve this silly bug.
2 Wait. (Not much actually)


I did not need to hide any updates (lucky me ) but that MIGHT be recommended to you (to get rid of windows 10 nag). You can do it, just make sure you dont hide THIS hotfix. Other than that, go ahead and do you thing.
Whatever you do, DO NOT reset windows update using those bat files. You are possibly making more trouble than you have. This is especially true for new (freshly installed systems). There's absolutely no need to reset Windows update on a fresh installation, that is asking for trouble.
HOWEVER, if you have an older installation with Windows update broken down, resetting is okay and actually, might be even recommended.


Guys, your answers were really helpful to me. Thanks again, have a nice Sunday afternoon!

This worked good for me on a Fresh install...

During Fresh/Custom install, select "Install Important Updates Only".
In Control Panel, under Power Plan Options, select "Never Off" for monitor and computer.
In Windows Update, change setting to "Never Check for Updates".
From a thumb drive on a different computer, download from Microsoft the fix called KB3135445.
Run this fix until it installs itself. You may need to try it several times and reboot til it installs.
Reboot, and then try Windows Update again.

Within 10 minutes, Update had found 153 updates. I clicked OK, and it immediately started to
download and install all 153 updates.
It takes about 3 hours to download and install the updates, and everything appears to be back to normal.

I found this fix after trying several re-installs, and Fix-it tools and Diagnostic tools. Pretty much wasted 4 days,
clicked on too many things, and tried to install too many fixes.
I really hope this helps someone, and am glad to share what worked for me.
Jefronorway.