windows update just seems to hang while checking.

[matt4x4]

That would be breaking the law, I'd assume.

With the user agreements and everything that no one reads, and these companies think its open season to rip people off (by stealing information). I dont touch Google with a 10 foot pole anymore. Even Google Chrome, their translate feature is alright, I rarely use it.

I am liking DuckDuckGo, I tried TOR but its real slow. VPN's might work better. CCleaner is good, I use that all the time.
I think even Yahoo saves your info, so I stopped using that too. Their news service is quite out there in left field. Reporting on stuff no one cares about to fill the pages. Most of the "news" is faked anyway. Glaring spelling mistakes. The writters are probably hired from Jr. High, or Nigeria. Saves them money I guess.

 

[VFN]

Well, I just had to turn off auto updates in any form because my cpu was being held captive for the last hour. The problem with this MS debacle is not that it takes so long but that it completely disables my computer while retrieving.

 

[lmacri]

I was over at Seven Forums looking for reports of problems with the new MSE update, and saw this: Windows Update - Windows 7 Help Forums. Probably just the tip of the iceberg.

This is a bit off-topic since it only applies to Win 7 and IE11, but there is a recent thread titled svchost.exe utilising over 1,000,000K of Memory! in the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware forum that states in part:

"It is my belief that Microsoft prioritizes updates. The latest OS has the highest priority and the Oldest OS will have the lowest priority."

That post also refers to a Win 7 SP1 patch KB3102810 - Installing and searching for updates is slow and high CPU usage occurs in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (v1 release 20-Oct-2015; v2 released 03-Nov-2015) as a possible solution for affected Win 7 users. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a similar patch for Vista.
------------
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 45.0 * NIS 2014 v. 21.7.0.11 * MBAM Premium 2.2.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

 

[Vistaar]

That post also refers to a Win 7 SP1 patch KB3102810 - Installing and searching for updates is slow and high CPU usage occurs in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (v1 release 20-Oct-2015; v2 released 03-Nov-2015) as a possible solution for affected Win 7 users. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a similar patch for Vista.

The clearest evidence we have seen that "extended support" has different meanings for different Windows versions. BTW, I provided feedback at the bottom of the KB article that the information wasn't helpful because there is no solution for Windows Vista.

 

[GateArray]

Hi,

I've got the same situation... my system on hyper-v is stuck since 9 hours...
It is simply incredible....
Next step is usage of 6gb of RAM to be sure it is not something hardware related...

 

[VFN]

"It is my belief that Microsoft prioritizes updates. The latest OS has the highest priority and the Oldest OS will have the lowest priority."

I'll just add that when Windows 10 first came out I read the first to get the free update were PCs with specs MS thought would have the least problem with it so they can and do prioritize apparently.

And another hour today and no update. Stuff like this really makes you think about going to another OS.

 

[GateArray]

yesterday.... after 11 hours, I got 198 new update.
My customer has a Vista business that make update very simply, without taking and lost hours on hours...

 

[VFN]

Thought I'd share this as I find it useful. To stop Windows Updates: Run -> "services.msc" -> Click Windows Updates -> Click 'stop" in upper left. I've used this several times now because Svchost completely captures my CPU when looking for Updates. Yep, I haven't gotten an Update in 8 days. Thanks, Microsoft.

 

[GateArray]

This could help...
I'm going to test on the other vista x64 installation

What is the System Update Readiness Tool? - Windows Help

 

[VFN]

Here's something interesting perhaps: I came back from being away and upon boot got a message from Windows Defender that I hadn't updated for a while. (I hadn't received WIndows Updates for at least two weeks.) So I started Windows Updates but after an hour stopped it. I then opened Defender, searched for updates through it and received them in minutes.

 

[Vistaar]

Check for updates yesterday took about three hours to find twelve updates (including three for Office and one for IE 9).

 

[lmacri]

Something odd happened when I ran my Patch Tuesday Windows Update for April 2016 today (14-Apr-2016). I don't know if this is a coincidence, but after watching "Checking for updates..." hang for almost 5 hours I launched Sysinternal's Process Explorer just to confirm that svchost.exe was constantly consuming 50% of my CPU (i.e. saturation of one of my dual cores) and that the Windows Update service wuauserv (wuaueng.dll) was responsible for that CPU consumption. However, as soon as I closed Process Explorer the "Checking for updates..." phase ended and Windows Update suddenly reported that 11 updates were available for download. Windows Update then proceeded normally once the updates were found, as it usually does, and the remaining steps (create restore point / download and install updates / Malicious Software Removal Tool scan for April 2016 / system restart) all completed in about 20 min.

I took my system out of idle and launched Process Explorer (PE) around the 30 min mark in the image below, and Windows Update ran to completion by the 10 min mark. The system reboot to finish configuration is shown as a dark grey band at the far right of the image.



I'll try this again next month for the May 2016 Patch Tuesday Updates and report back if I'm able to successfully terminate "Checking for updates..." by viewing the properties of the svchost.exe process in Process Explorer.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v45.0.2 * NIS v21.7.0.11 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

 

[townsbg]

Windows update also took about 3.5 hours for me to check for updates however once it did it only took about 20 minutes to download and install. It also took about 3 hours to check for updates on my 7 virtual machine (on which I am a month behind on updates) and I still haven't been able to install any. It won't change to say anything other than 0% of 0kb. I've tried telling it to install all of the updates and only the office updates. I've tried today and yesterday. Any ideas? I know that there server is working because vista updates installed this morning. Now I am trying yet again to install only the office updates. If this doesn't work I'll try renaming the software distribution folder and try again. I don't want to do that because it will have to scan for updates again. Also I had no problems updating 2008 r2 but there where hardly updates any since I don't have much installed.

 

[lmacri]

It also took about 3 hours to check for updates on my 7 virtual machine (on which I am a month behind on updates) and I still haven't been able to install any. It won't change to say anything other than 0% of 0kb.

Hi townsbg:

There are several recent post in the Windows SevenForums Updates & Activation board about problems with the April 2016 Patch Tuesday updates that you might want to monitor. Microsoft released a major update for Win 10 Version 1511 on 12-Apr-2016 (build 10586.212 - see Microsoft's Windows 10 Update History) so I wasn't surprised to hear that the updates on Vista and Win 7 machines are particularly difficult this April.

There have been several recent optional updates for the Windows Update Agent (WUA) for Win 7 that were intended to fix these slow updates - see my comments in the bleepingcomputer Vista forum thread Windows Not Updating. I don't want to take this Vista thread off-topic (these WUA updates for the C:\Windows\system32\wuaueng.dll file are not available for Vista) and I don't know if these optional updates for the WUA for Win 7 include a backdoor to try and force an upgrade to Win 10 but you might find some helpful links in that thread.

EDIT:

If you read further in that bleepingcomputer thread you will find SleepyDude's recent post <here> that notes that KB3138612 (Windows Update Client for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: March 2016) updates the WUA for Win 7 to v7.6.7601.19161.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v45.0.2 * NIS v21.7.0.11 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

 

[townsbg]

Thanks for the information. i'm starting to think that M$ doesn't care about anything other than 10. I wonder why though I was able to update Vista but not 7. I'm trying windows only updates now (no MSE, office, IE, or .net) and still no luck.

 

[townsbg]

Earlier tonight I left my 7 virtual machine running for 2 & a half hours and the install got nowhere.

 

[townsbg]

I was finally able to get updates to install today.

 

[lmacri]

A question for affected Vista users. Does anyone experiencing these slow Windows Updates have the MS .NET Framework v4.6.x installed on their machine?

The last .NET Framework security update delivered to my 32-bit Vista machine was KB3135996 (Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Server 2008) and this update was installed during my March 2016 Patch Tuesday updates. My Control Panel | Programs and Features also shows I have v4.5.2.



I noticed the MS Download Center has an offline MS .NET Framework v4.6 installer for Vista SP2 and higher (KB3045557 published 15-Oct-2015) as well as an offline v4.6.1 installer for Win 7 SP1 and higher (KB3102436 published 17-Nov-2015). There are a few Win 7 users posting in the SevenForums that updating to the latest .NET Framework and Windows Update Agent (WUA) solved their slow Windows Updates - see DRZ12's thread Windows 7: update not updating for one example.

I'm wondering now why Windows Update didn't automatically update my .NET Framework to v4.6 and whether this is even relevant to the slow connections to the Windows Update server. As far as I know Windows Update does not require the .NET Framework, and I believe I have the latest WUA for my 32-bit Vista since my C:\Windows\system32\wuaueng.dll file is v7.6.7600.256.

Just a warning - I'm not actually recommending that users upgrade to v4.6.x. The March 2016 GFI article Hold off on upgrading to .NET Framework 4.6.1 suggests that users stay with v4.5.2 for now because of known issues with the newest version.
------------
32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v45.0.2 * NIS v21.7.0.11 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

 

[townsbg]

I have 4.0.x installed and I haven't had any problems checking for updates until this month.

 

[Vista1972]

I have 4.0.x installed and I haven't had any problems checking for updates until this month.

Apparently there is an issue with one of the updates- KB3145739

The fix is to download KB3145739 as a standalone update and install it. After it's installed, you will be able to run Windows update and receive the remaining updates for April.

Choose from 32 or 64 bit:

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/MS16-039

Before you install it, you'll need to stop Windows update from running. Open services and stop it. Run the KB3145739 standalone update. Reboot when prompted. Check for updates after restart. Took me under 10 minutes and showed as an icon notification while downloading. Either shutdown and install updates or double-click the notification to move focus to the Windows update app.

This also works with Windows 7