Windows 7: Win 7 Updates Stuck on Downloading % For Three Days!!

Hi Everyone....

I have been struggling thru this Win 7 update hassle on my two Dell PCs both running Win 7 , 64 bit, SP1, Windows firewall, and Avast Free. In the past, updates just took a while, but eventually, they went thru OK.

Suddenly, after this week's updates, one of my PCs got stuck at 0% downloading 5 selected updates since Tuesday. The other PC updated properly with no problem.

I have left the system on for hours on end, but it is still 0%.

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Nobody?

Thanks, Guys.

I have exactly the same problem with 13 of the recent updates. I have trawled the net and tried a fix for update problems that I found somewhere but it didn't work and I really can't waste any more time on this.

Thank you Judesman for being the only one on this forum to acknowledge and reply to my post.

I did the same as you, and just as you, have no more time to waste on this.

Sniggler, this has worked on all my systems and every VM I've tested over the last couple of months:

Try this:

Download the April 2015 servicing stack update https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3020369

Also download the July 2016 update rollup https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3172605

Disconnect your internet connection.

Open Windows Update, select 'Change settings' and change it to "Never check for updates". Click 'OK' to exit out of Control Panel.

Open the start menu and type services.msc in the search bar.

Scroll down to the Windows Update service -> right click -> select Properties. Change startup type to 'manual' and stop the service. Click 'OK'.

Reboot the PC.

Install the April 2015 servicing stack update (KB3020369).

Install the July 2016 update rollup (KB3172605).

Reboot the PC again once installed.

Go back into Services and change Windows Update service back to 'Automatic (delayed start)' and then restart the service.

Reconnect your internet.

Open Windows Update and select 'Check for updates but let me choose'. Click 'OK'.

Check for updates and it should hopefully pick them up within 5 - 10 minutes (depending on your connection).

Thank you for this. I will have to wait until I have a bit of time to go through all of this, I am not much of a techy but I am sure it will be pretty straightforward once I get into it.

doG Bless You, kind soul!!!
Your instructions are (I think) the only, step-by-step, foolproof method.
I've seen countless mentions of 3020369 and 3172605, but somehow managed to miss a critical step getting them properly installed.

I just ran your fix on my Win7/64 laptop (after waiting nearly 3 hours for "checking for updates" yesterday).
Start to finish, including the 12 available patches, just now: about 20 minutes.
Bless You!

I now have to implement this procedure on my Win7/64 desktop. I did manage to get the September patches in yesterday, but it took > 2 hours, when it might have taken a few minutes.

So, for the OP and @Judesman, each computer is unique and YMMV, but this procedure worked like a charm for me.

Cheers,
MM

No problem MM. My manual update checks only take between 20-60 seconds to complete now. Haven't had any update issues since installing those updates. And that's running 3 systems and 4 different VM's.

Many thanks. I am fatigued so I turned off Updates for now and will implement this after I recoup.

I now have some friends who are casual users - not techies - experiencing the same thing. Endless checking.

I can only think that MS will have to do something about this soon since so many people are affected.