windows update just seems to hang while checking.

[Metiiin]

Thanks Imacri, I had tried that before with no success. I am currently trying one of the tools Dalai has on his website, it seems to be fixing all my issues. Im glad I found this forum, it has been very useful.

 

[lmacri]

I am currently trying one of the tools Dalai has on his website, it seems to be fixing all my issues.

Hi Metiiin:

Thanks for the update, and glad to hear you've made some progress.

If you mean that you're trying Torsten Witrock's WSUS Offline Update tool to install your missing security updates, it would be great if you could post back and let us know how well it worked. According to Ed's post <here> on the AskWoody.com site it should work for Vista SP2 if users select the Legacy Products tab, but very few Vista SP2 users have posted feedback about this this tool.

I'd also be curious to know if you're seeing any error messages when you run Windows Update. As Vistaar mentioned, users in this thread see the initial "Checking for updates...." phase of Windows Update hang for hours and hours while the Windows Update Agent searches for available updates and consumes an entire core of our CPU but we never see an error message during one of these slow Windows Updates.
------------
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v50.1.0 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1

 

[bzbox]

@bzbox: Welcome to Vista Forums! You're just in time for the apocalypse. I would suggest System Restore.

Or I can wait until January 2017

 

[Vistaar]

Or I can wait until January 2017

Or better yet, wait until May 2017 when all our Windows Update troubles will be over.

 

[lmacri]

I pre-installed the speed up update and restarted, then checking for updates went for about an hour and a little icon appeared in taskbar saying "new updates are available" ... I restarted my computer and in few seconds small WU icon in taskbar reappeard with 12 updates ready to install and few minutes later svchost.exe (netsvcs) started to eat 50%.

Hi bzbox:

It sounds like you have your automatic updates enabled and set to "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them." If that's correct, the instructions on page 1 of m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours recommend that users disable their automatic updates [Windows Update | Change settings | Important updates | Never check for updates (not recommended) and re-boot - the re-boot is critical] to terminate any Windows Update sessions running in the background. Once your background updates are terminated it should be safe to install the speed up patch and then run a manual Windows Update (Windows Update | Check for updates) to install any remaining updates.

I've had my automatic Windows Updates permanently disabled [Never check for updates (not recommended)] ever since these "Checking for updates..." hangs first appeared on my system in August 2015. Each Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of the month) I check Dalai's webpage at http://wu.krelay.de/en/ and download and install the standalone .msu installer for the latest Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32K.sys) speed up patch added to that webpage. Once the new Win32K.sys speed up patch is installed my manual Windows Update always runs "normally" (i.e., "Checking for updates..." finishes in about 90 min and not several hours) and my remaining Patch Tuesday updates install successfully.

When automatic Windows Updates are disabled you can still run a manual Windows Update whenever you wish just to see if Microsoft has released a security update outside of a Patch Tuesday, but out-of-band updates for Vista SP2 / IE9 are very rare these days. These manual Windows Updates should run relatively quickly, and you shouldn't have to worry about "Checking for updates..." hangs and high CPU consumption until the next Patch Tuesday when Microsoft releases another large batch of security updates.
------------
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v50.1.0 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1

 

[bzbox]

Hi bzbox:

It sounds like you have your automatic updates enabled and set to "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them." If that's correct, the instructions on page 1 of m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours recommend that users disable their automatic updates [Windows Update | Change settings | Important updates | Never check for updates (not recommended) and re-boot - the re-boot is critical] to terminate any Windows Update sessions running in the background. Once your background updates are terminated it should be safe to install the speed up patch and then run a manual Windows Update (Windows Update | Check for updates) to install any remaining updates.

I've had my automatic Windows Updates permanently disabled [Never check for updates (not recommended)] ever since these "Checking for updates..." hangs first appeared on my system in August 2015. Each Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of the month) I check Dalai's webpage at Search for Windows Updates takes forever? - A possible solution and download and install the standalone .msu installer for the latest Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32K.sys) speed up patch added to that webpage. Once the new Win32K.sys speed up patch is installed my manual Windows Update always runs "normally" (i.e., "Checking for updates..." finishes in about 90 min and not several hours) and my remaining Patch Tuesday updates install successfully.

When automatic Windows Updates are disabled you can still run a manual Windows Update whenever you wish just to see if Microsoft has released a security update outside of a Patch Tuesday, but out-of-band updates for Vista SP2 / IE9 are very rare these days. These manual Windows Updates should run relatively quickly, and you shouldn't have to worry about "Checking for updates..." hangs and high CPU consumption until the next Patch Tuesday when Microsoft releases another large batch of security updates.
------------
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v50.1.0 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1

Thanks for your advice, but until now I didn't have any problems even if I set it to manual before I ran WU check.
The thing is, I don't use any external antivirus so I recieve Windows Defender definition update every 2-3 days. Never check for updates would be bad decision for me to set.
Any advice where to get these definitions online on Microsoft update catalogue?

 

[lmacri]

The thing is, I don't use any external antivirus so I recieve Windows Defender definition update every 2-3 days. Never check for updates would be bad decision for me to set. Any advice where to get these definitions online on Microsoft update catalogue?

Hi bzbox:

That's a bit off topic, but you should be able to update the definitions by opening Windows Defender (right-click the icon in your system tray and choose Open) and clicking "Check for Updates Now" every few days, or you can simply go to Tools | Settings | Options and schedule an automatic scan to run every few days with the option to "Check for updated definitions before scanning".



Alternately, you can leave automatic Windows Updates enabled and just remember to lock down your system a day or so before Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of the month) by disabling automatic Windows Update [Never check for updates (not recommended)] and re-booting. Once you've installed your monthly Win32K.sys speed up patch and run a manual Windows Update to install your remaining your Patch Tuesday updates you can turn your automatic Windows Updates back on for another month.

I'd be negligent, though, if I didn't mention that the Windows Defender that comes with Vista SP2 only scans for a very limited set of spyware and is not a full antivirus program like the Windows Defender that comes with Windows 8 - see the warning in Eve Blakemore's Microsoft Secure blog entry Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials: Which one do I need? The Windows Defender in Vista SP2 provides very little protection, and even if you don't want to install a free antivirus program you'd probably be better off running a manual Threat Scan every few days with the free Malwarebytes Anti-Malware than relying on Windows Defender for protection.
------------
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v50.1.0 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1

 

[Be4stElectrjc]

Hi, have a fresh Vista SP2 Business x86. In the updates history there are KB970158, KB956250 and the latest update agent 7.6.7600.256. Tried to searching for updates, but after 3 hours i shutdown. I don't know if their servers have problems or the process can take more than 3 hours, so i came here to have more info about it. Thanks in advance.

 

[Vistaar]

I don't use any external antivirus so I recieve Windows Defender definition update every 2-3 days. Never check for updates would be bad decision for me to set.

If you prefer to rely on Microsoft for security, then you should definitely install Microsoft Security Essentials. Unlike the old Windows Defender, MSE is an effective antivirus which I am using myself. Installing MSE disables and replaces Defender. (Recent versions of Avast also disable Defender upon installation.) I'm not sure about Defender, but I can assure you that MSE is able to automatically update definitions once per day even if Windows Update is set to Never check for updates; and of course you can manually update at any time. When Microsoft ended support for XP in April 2014, they threatened to cut off MSE definition updates for XP in July 2015 - however that never happened: there are still XP diehards using MSE. Therefore, I intend to go on running Vista and using MSE beyond April 11.

 

[Vistaar]

Hi, have a fresh Vista SP2 Business x86. In the updates history there are KB970158, KB956250 and the latest update agent 7.6.7600.256. Tried to searching for updates, but after 3 hours i shutdown...i came here to have more info about it.

Welcome to Vista Forums Be4stElectrjc. There is plenty of info about it in this thread (perhaps too much), or see the step-by-step instructions at https://answers.microsoft.com/message/1ef00080-91e9-4ffa-a5a3-92f6ecd69c32. Good luck!

 

[lmacri]

Hi, have a fresh Vista SP2 Business x86. In the updates history there are KB970158, KB956250 and the latest update agent 7.6.7600.256. Tried to searching for updates, but after 3 hours i shutdown. I don't know if their servers have problems or the process can take more than 3 hours.....

Hi Be4stElectrjc:

These "Checking for updates...." hangs and slow Windows Updates are a common issue for Vista SP2 users and started appearing on some machines back in August 2015. See Dalai's background information for a brief explanation of the cause - the slow updates do not appear to be related to connection problems or high traffic loads on the backend Microsoft servers.

Try the step-by-step instructions on page 1 of m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours in the MS Answers forum. Those instructions have been revised for December 2016 and will be valid until the January 2017 Patch Tuesday updates are released on 10-Jan-2016. If you have a fresh install of Vista SP2 you will likely find that all six of the Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32K.sys) speed up patches listed in STEP # 2 are missing and have to be manually installed.

And "speed up" is a relative term. According to the_tourist's post # 214 in the bleepingcomputer thread Windows Vista Update Hangs at "Checking For Updates" his Windows Update ran to completion in under 4 hours with a fresh reinstall of Vista SP2 (206 updates in total) after he pre-installed his six missing Win32K.sys speed up patches last month, but that seems extremely fast to me even with his relatively speedy 64-bit machine. You have a 32-bit machine so I'd be prepared to leave your manual Windows Update (STEP # 6) running overnight (or longer) to see if "Checking for updates..." eventually runs to completion.

EDIT:

Sorry Vistaar. I just noticed you had already replied to Be4stElectrjc.
------------
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v50.1.0 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1

 

[kp161]

Hi Imacri and everyone

As a total computer illiterate, I wanted to say thank you to Imacri and everyone else on this thread for the extremely helpful posts. I recently inherited a Vista Home Premium 32-bit laptop with Office 2010 that had not been updated since July 2015. Windows Update seemed to search permanently for updates without ever finding anything. It also consumed 50% of CPU making the machine almost unusable.

Following Imacri’s instructions on the MS Answers forum, I first turned off Windows Update and then manually installed all six of the updates listed, restarting between each update. The first of them (KB3078601) took a very long time. I thought the computer had died in the process as it appeared to get stuck on ‘shutting down’ for about half an hour.

Once all six updates were successfully installed, I ran Windows Update. It took nearly three hours but eventually found 116 important updates and has successfully installed them all.

I’ll experiment with turning Windows Update back on, but if it continues to clog everything up I’ll do a manual update once a month instead.

I thought you’d like to know that I found Imacri’s instructions very clear and easy to follow and I’m most grateful. This is the internet at its best!

Many thanks,
kp

 

[Vistaar]

I’ll experiment with turning Windows Update back on, but if it continues to clog everything up I’ll do a manual update once a month instead.

Welcome to Vista Forums kp161! Windows Update should give you no trouble at all until Tuesday, January 10, when this issue will almost certainly strike again. Imacri's dedication to an issue that will become irrelevant in four months is most definitely appreciated by me as well.

 

[Be4stElectrjc]

Thanks for all, downloading updates now.

 

[TeknomanSlade]

This thread is amazing. All you people in this thread are amazing.

There's something I'm curious about though. I've been watching this thread for several months now, and I've never seen anyone mention this yet, so I'm asking here...

What anti-viruses are you all running? How many of you are running Security Essentials?

Before I found this forum, I did numerous searches on Google about the problems I was having with Windows Update on my Vista box. I can't remember where I saw it (sorry), but on one page I found on Microsoft's forums, I saw a guy who claimed that all......ALL of his problems with Windows Update disappeared when he uninstalled his copy of Security Essentials.

Now, this is a step I'm not willing to try on my own machine, as Security Essentials has saved my bacon more than once in the last few years. But I'm curious if anyone here knows about this, or if anyone can confirm, deny, test it out or whatever.

In any case, I just thought I'd run that by you all.

Thanks for all the good work!

 

[Vistaar]

...What anti-viruses are you all running? How many of you are running Security Essentials?...I can't remember where I saw it (sorry), but...a guy who claimed that...his problems with Windows Update disappeared when he uninstalled his copy of Security Essentials. Now, this is a step I'm not willing to try on my own machine...

The issue discussed in this thread affects MSE users such as myself and Norton users such as Imacri and virtual6 - in fact I'm convinced that it affects ALL Vista systems.

 

[townsbg]

Updates never came through for me.

 

[lmacri]

What anti-viruses are you all running? How many of you are running Security Essentials?

Before I found this forum, I did numerous searches on Google about the problems I was having with Windows Update on my Vista box. I can't remember where I saw it (sorry), but on one page I found on Microsoft's forums, I saw a guy who claimed that all......ALL of his problems with Windows Update disappeared when he uninstalled his copy of Security Essentials.

Hi TeknomanSlade:

If I understood bzbox's post # 446, this user has no antivirus (just the old anti-spyware version of Windows Defender) and still experiences these "Checking for updates..." hangs, so MSE can't be the root cause of the problem.

Users who perform a clean re-install of Vista consistently report that the "Checking for updates..." hangs start as soon as the SP2 service pack is installed and the Windows Update Agent (WUA) is updated to the latest v7.6.7600.256. I've never asked these users directly, but I assume at least some of them tried to bring their Vista SP2 OS up-to-date with Windows Update and experienced their first "Checking for updates..." hang before they installed MSE or a third-party antivirus.

As for me, I use Norton Internet Security (NIS) v22.8.1.14 as my antivirus. I normally turn on Silent Mode when I run my Windows Update (which temporarily suspends background maintenance tasks like Automatic LiveUpdates and Quick Scans that could consume system resources), but turning on Silent Mode does not disable my real-time protection.

The screenshot below is the CPU consumption from my November 2016 Patch Tuesday update after the KB3198234 speed up patch (MS16-135: Security Update for Windows Kernel-Mode Drivers: November 8, 2016) was installed. NIS completely ignored Windows Update during the 60 min "Checking for updates..." hang while the WUA (running under the host process svchost.exe) saturated one core of my dual core CPU and constantly consumed 50% of my CPU. You can only see a very small amount of CPU consumed by NIS (shown as yellow peaks of activity) when it "woke up" to monitor the download/installation phase of my 15 important updates. It probably doesn't help that NIS consumes a good chunk of my available RAM when it loads at boot-up but I haven't seen any direct evidence that NIS interferes with my Windows Updates. I do recall testing once with my NIS real-time Auto-Protect disabled but it didn't stop the "Checking for updates..." hang, so as long as Dalai's workaround continues working for most users each month I'm not going to uninstall my NIS to run further tests.


------------
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v50.1.0 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

 

[TeknomanSlade]

Thank you, Vistaar and Imacri, for your replies.

So, users with systems free of MSE's influence report having the "hang" as well...

I figured as much. At least now, there are posts in this thread that concretely establish, for those future new users reading at home, that this "hang" is not an anti-virus conflict. And for that, I appreciate your time.

See you all next month.

 

[Vistaar]

So, users with systems free of MSE's influence report having the "hang" as well...

As a matter of fact the evil influence actually works in the opposite direction, i.e. MSE definitions cannot be updated while Windows Update is endlessly checking for those hard-to-get security patches. Here's a fairly recent forum thread that you might want to look at: https://www.vistax64.com/system-security/304727-ms-security-essentials-question.html. At this point I'm a lot more interested in keeping MSE up to date than I am in getting the final few months of security patches for Vista, which is probably more trouble than it's worth.