Window 7 Pro Downloading & Installing updates

[#1]

I have two laptops... both running the same copy of Windows 7 Professional... Laptop A and Laptop B.

Laptop A reports the copy of windows is not genuine...  BUT... it still downloads and installs updates, and has done since day 1.

Laptop B is running the "genuine" ( i.e. microsoft spy acceptable). copy.. and has problems with downloading the updates.

Both were set to check, and download updates at the same time... ( about 17:00 )  Both were last updated on 10th september 2016.

Laptop A found 7 "important" updates and no others.... downloaded them and installed them... job finished, after a reboot, 30 mins ago.

Laptop B found 12 updates  ( 6 of which were "important".)... and is still downloading them with  0 Kb and 0% progress

Why ?

[#2]

Always found Windows 7 to be a mysterious beast.

Did it sort itself out in the end?

[#3]

No.... Was still downloading them at 11.30     -   stopped the download, because I wanted to get them sorted with the re-boot before going to bed at midnite.... unlucky me... it wanted me to "retry" and started to download the all again.. so I cancelled... will give another try this afternoon.... starting now ! ! 

13:05 Tuesday 11 October 2016....

Point of interest.... both laptops on the same router... Laptop A on  WIFI link, and Laptop B on a wired link to the router... speed is just above 7 mb with no other activity, except a bit of surfing.

[#4]

There have been problems with Windows Update on W7 for quite some time now.

This fix has worked for a lot of people.

[#5]

@Browni  Thanks for that... had a quick look at the page... and will do it later... cos I want to use the computer now ! ! ..

@MattyC Update  .... well not really... !   it`s still looking for those 12 updates... so I guess I will just have to cancel it, and do what it says on Browni`s linky... and hope that does the trick.

cheers both

[#6]

@Browni  Well, I got as far as downloading the first KB by manual... and it is searching, as before, for updates for your computer.... which I think will take forever... so have fired up my Laptop A ! ! .

Noticed this warning at the start....

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE, October 11, 2016.  Stay away from Windows Update today and for the foreseeable future.  Set your Windows Update setting to Never.  Wonky things are happening in Windows Update.  We need to find a way to keep our Windows 7 systems -- Windows 7 and under our control.  Hopefully, we will find a way and publish it.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

So maybe, probably, the fact that today is the 11th october 2016 ,.... that could be the problem...  ( at least with this machine ).    Will see how it goes... probably..  maybe... 

[#7]

I have been using the method described here for quite some time - works very well for me.

[#8]

@NorthPole  @Browni thanks for your input... the big problem it seems is trying to actually GET the downloads, downloaded... even if I select only one download, as I did late yesterday afternoon... it still had not downloaded or installed anything by midnight...

The links do not go "direct" to the download KB numbers,... but give a Stand Alone Update window, which does exactly the same thing as the "normal" update window.... which seems to be absolutlely nothing...

so how did you get those downloads? 

[#9]

I had the issue of Win7 searching for updates for hours (and taking up most of the CPU capacity while it did so) - that was only a problem when there actually were new updates available (it was reasonably quick if there weren't any.)

The fix linked to by @NorthPole seemed to work eventually, but this morning's batch of scheduled updates showed once again how flaky the process seems to have become - 9 updates were installed 'successfully', PC rebooted as required, only to find yet another 'important' update immediately showing in the Update window!

@shutter - did you have Windows update set to 'never check for updates' before trying to download individual updates manually?

Also, have you got any optional updates lurking within your updater, one or more of which may be MS 'catch-up' updates designed to fix various Windows issues (I installed them but didn't bother trying to find out exactly what they were supposed to fix - been there, done that, had to lie down! )

[#10]

@JayG  I have always had Windows update set to "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them"...... and then I would check the "more information" against each one listed...

Changing the setting to "never check" did not make any difference to the length of time the updater is checking for updates... can`t see how it would...because as soon as you click the linky for a specific update the standalone update checker still runs "forever"  saying "searching for updates on this computer"... note.. the plural, when only requesting ONE ...

Point of interest.... still running the "stand alone" checking for updates for your computer nonsense...

crikey me... the linky only referred to ONE KB number ... shouldn`t be difficult to find that, should it  ? ? 

[#11]

@shutter I do just about recall having the same difficulty you describe when trying to download a single update - haven't checked to see to what extent they differ from those already linked to, but I used THESE instructions - I think I probably had to temporarily disable the updater (as distinct from 'never check for updates') before I got it to work (went down many blind alleys and have had several sleeps since.)

[#12]

@JayG Thanks again... the big problem is, that all these "fixes" require you to download "specific" updates... which... as I have just said, is giving exactly the same problem...

The stand alone update tool keeps "searching for updates for this computer"... with no result... therefore it is just chasing around in circles, and no result...

Will keep the current stand alone running, while we go out, and hope that it has found something by the time we get back home...

updates ( from me, ) will follow,... so please keep waiting................

Just a thought.... many of these "fixes" refer to updates of the stand alone, or standard windows updater.... is there any way of finding out which KB numbers these are... so I could find them and "uninstall" them.... and then download the latest version,  ? ? ?  

maybe it is all those old uns that are causing the congestion in the system...

[#13]

THIS article may help - I didn't use the single 'convenience rollup' myself,  but it appears that with (or without) windows updater temporarily stopped, you should be able to download and install this file by invoking the 'standalone installer.'

[#14]

@shutter I have started using WSUS offline for my updates for both Windows 7 & Windows 8.1.

It avoids the issues that you and many others have encountered.

[#15]

@JayG Well 2 hours later, and we are still looking for the single download !..

@Browni  OK... thanks for that... will give it a go.. ! .