The solution (for me) in a nutshell: install KB3050265 / reboot / install KB3135445 / reboot
I wrote all of the below before I saw the "Fix for windows 7 update" sticky here on Anandtech. I'm going to post anyways to relate what worked for me. It's an alternate fix. As I say below one of the main problems is in the finding of a fix. Fixes exist, but are not readily found (in my experience) using a search engine.
I would suggest that it would be a good idea to add the word "stuck" in the post title of the sticky. "Stuck" is the query term that Google offers for Windows 7 update.
In recent months I have been plagued by a problem when installing Windows 7. It may only happen on 64-bit installs, but I doubt it. By Googling I can see that this has been a problem since at least March 2016, if not a year before that.
The problem is that after reinstalling Windows 7 I would try to run Windows Update. It would either never return (it would just "spin") or would take a CRAZY long time to come back with a list of updates ... many, many hours or overnight.
When I would search for solutions on the net and in various forums many different solutions were put forward. I tried several without success.
I'll bet that this particular solution is documented in other places. As I can see from the sticky in this forum there are absolutely other solutions for this problem.
I would suggest that the main problem here is that there is no easy way to FIND THE SOLUTION for this problem. When you put the terms => windows 7 update <= into Google what immediately pops up is => windows 7 update stuck <= .
When I went through the query results from the latter I wasn't able to solve the problem. After I found this solution I did an additional "experiment" to check that the KB3050265 / KB3135445 fix was all that was needed to solve this problem. I haven't tried doing just KB3135445, which might be a solution by itself.
Steps in my "confirmation experiment" that fixed this problem for me
- installed Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-bit on a (kinda old) Dell Optiplex 790 with i5-2500 / ST3250312AS / mucho RAM
- Win 7 Pro SP1 64-bit installed via a Dell reinstallation DVD that I have from another Dell computer, Dell P/N D0V2K
[ If you do not have SP1 then install it after you install Win7. This will save you time in the long run. ]
[ http://windows.microsoft.com/installwindows7sp1 ]
- during the install set Windows Update to never check for updates
- if you can't figure out how to do that then install with no net connection, after the install turn off Windows Update / reboot / reconnect
- appropriately, for me, Windows 7 Pro "auto-activates" on installation
- run Windows Update, it doles out Windows Update Agent 7.6.7600.320 which installs successfully
- on general principles I rebooted the machine
- again, run Windows Update, over the course of 90 minutes it just "spins"
[ You should skip the above step. ]
- reboot the machine while Windows Update is still "spinning"
[ You should skip the above step. ]
- manually run a Windows Update client update = Windows6.1-KB3050265-x64.msu
[ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3050265 ]
- reboot the machine
- manually run a Windows Update client update = Windows6.1-KB3135445-x64.msu
[ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3135445 ]
- reboot the machine
- again, run Windows Update, in rather less than 5 minutes it comes up with almost 150 needed updates for me
- [suggestion] after you have all the updates installed turn on either auto-updating or auto-downloading of updates
I wrote all of the below before I saw the "Fix for windows 7 update" sticky here on Anandtech. I'm going to post anyways to relate what worked for me. It's an alternate fix. As I say below one of the main problems is in the finding of a fix. Fixes exist, but are not readily found (in my experience) using a search engine.
I would suggest that it would be a good idea to add the word "stuck" in the post title of the sticky. "Stuck" is the query term that Google offers for Windows 7 update.
In recent months I have been plagued by a problem when installing Windows 7. It may only happen on 64-bit installs, but I doubt it. By Googling I can see that this has been a problem since at least March 2016, if not a year before that.
The problem is that after reinstalling Windows 7 I would try to run Windows Update. It would either never return (it would just "spin") or would take a CRAZY long time to come back with a list of updates ... many, many hours or overnight.
When I would search for solutions on the net and in various forums many different solutions were put forward. I tried several without success.
I'll bet that this particular solution is documented in other places. As I can see from the sticky in this forum there are absolutely other solutions for this problem.
I would suggest that the main problem here is that there is no easy way to FIND THE SOLUTION for this problem. When you put the terms => windows 7 update <= into Google what immediately pops up is => windows 7 update stuck <= .
When I went through the query results from the latter I wasn't able to solve the problem. After I found this solution I did an additional "experiment" to check that the KB3050265 / KB3135445 fix was all that was needed to solve this problem. I haven't tried doing just KB3135445, which might be a solution by itself.
Steps in my "confirmation experiment" that fixed this problem for me
- installed Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-bit on a (kinda old) Dell Optiplex 790 with i5-2500 / ST3250312AS / mucho RAM
- Win 7 Pro SP1 64-bit installed via a Dell reinstallation DVD that I have from another Dell computer, Dell P/N D0V2K
[ If you do not have SP1 then install it after you install Win7. This will save you time in the long run. ]
[ http://windows.microsoft.com/installwindows7sp1 ]
- during the install set Windows Update to never check for updates
- if you can't figure out how to do that then install with no net connection, after the install turn off Windows Update / reboot / reconnect
- appropriately, for me, Windows 7 Pro "auto-activates" on installation
- run Windows Update, it doles out Windows Update Agent 7.6.7600.320 which installs successfully
- on general principles I rebooted the machine
- again, run Windows Update, over the course of 90 minutes it just "spins"
[ You should skip the above step. ]
- reboot the machine while Windows Update is still "spinning"
[ You should skip the above step. ]
- manually run a Windows Update client update = Windows6.1-KB3050265-x64.msu
[ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3050265 ]
- reboot the machine
- manually run a Windows Update client update = Windows6.1-KB3135445-x64.msu
[ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3135445 ]
- reboot the machine
- again, run Windows Update, in rather less than 5 minutes it comes up with almost 150 needed updates for me
- [suggestion] after you have all the updates installed turn on either auto-updating or auto-downloading of updates