Windows Update erradic performance

Recently purchased a refurbished notebook with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit installed. The os had not been updated since Aug 17, 2015. I ran Windows Update for 2 days before finally succeeding at installing all updates. There were approximately 100 files that needed to be downloaded and installed. Numerous failures occurred, each time there was a failure I grouped a few files together and licked Install. I repeatedly ran Check for Updates and it would find more updates. Am I the only one who has had this experience? How did you deal with it?

KCav

I think I'd be more concerned with using a netbook that hadn't been reset to factory settings. Is it set up to someone else's user account?

Under c:/users it says User; under Control Panel / Users there is only one account and it says User.

KCav

Today there were 28 new updates; I sorted by size, selected those less than 3GB - downloaded and installed; now downloading 4 more.



KCav

If you see an update that is more than 3GB, then you are probably looking at the update that takes the computer to Windows 10.

Does the netbook have a built-in recovery partition? If it was me I would want to re-set to factory settings and put my own username in. It sounds like it doesn't have a recovery partition and someone has set up a new install with 'User' as the username for whoever bought it. Although you can change it in user accounts that is just cosmetic and the files and folders in the profile will all still be 'user'. There is a way to change it without resetting to factory settings or re-installing, but I don't know what it is! Someone will. Over time it could get really annoying just having 'user' on everything.

Check if you have a recovery partition and/or look in the programs menu (windows button, select programs) and see if there is any recovery program listed or manufacturers folder that might have a recovery option in.

Just thinking it might be good to sort that out before you get it all updated with Windows updates. It isn't just the name - you don't know what the previous owner has done on the computer or whether there are any viruses on it. Was it advertised as having a new install of Windows? If so you are unlikely to have a recovery partition and if they didn't give you the disc with it then there are ways to reinstall as a new user if the product key is on the bottom of the netbook.