Microsoft Update without Internet Explorer?

[GotNoRice]

I just finished a new build (Windows 7 64-bit) and everything is working great except for some reason whenever I open internet explorer, it automatically crashes, tries to recover by closing and opening a new tab, crashes again, and does this over and over again until I force quit IE.

That in itself isn't really a problem since no one who will ever use this computer will ever use IE. The problem i'm having right now, is that currently Windows Update is set to check for updates for "windows only". If I follow the link below which usually will take me to where I can enable Microsoft Update, it opens IE which proceeds to crash over and over. If I go to that link using another browser, it just takes me to a page that tells me to use Windows Update via the Start Menu.

How can I enable Microsoft Update without using Internet Explorer?

 

[Dahak]

i don't think it is possible, but you could try to load ie with no addons, there should be a link for that in the start menu, Internet Explorer (No Addons)

if it does not crash then, it might be an addon, you can go into control panel -> internet options and go to programs tab -> manage addons and disable all of them and see if it works

 

[GotNoRice]

I'll give that a shot, although this is a fresh install of Win7, unless IE comes with addons by default, there shouldn't be any.

 

[Elixer]

A fresh install should not be crashing anything system related.
I would run memtest86+ to check you RAM, and do some CPU stress testing as well.

 

[Iron Woode]

I'll give that a shot, although this is a fresh install of Win7, unless IE comes with addons by default, there shouldn't be any.

click start button -> click all programs -> scroll to Accessories and click it -> find and click System Tools -> click Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)

remember Win7 comes with IE8 by default and I have seen it crash on the msn homepage after a fresh install.

I always have a copy of IE 11 for win7 x64 on a thumb drive for this very reason.

 

[blankslate]

you could try searching for a standalone ie 11 installer for windows 7 then save it to your computer to install offline. Something that the Iron Woode seems to have already done.

searching "windows.microsoft.com download internet explorer 11 (offline installer)"

without the " " symbols should take you to the microsoft page that has the links to the files

Once you have IE 11 installed see if that works.


.....

 

[Dude111]

What if you used a different browser and changed the user agent to make it look like IE??

 

[SilentRunning]

If your version of Windows 7 is pre service pack 1, download service pack 1 and install it. If your hard drive is an advanced format disk it can cause issues with some windows services. There is a hotfix that adds support for advanced format disks that may be causing your problem.

Here is the hot fix (included in service pack 1):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982018

 

[Dahak]

What if you used a different browser and changed the user agent to make it look like IE??

Unfortunately the control panel is hard coded to load IE so even if you have a different browser set as default it will always load IE

 

[postmortemIA]

did you update IE? that can be done outside of Widows Update.

 

[Mushkins]

How can I enable Microsoft Update without using Internet Explorer?

Easiest way to do this is to open a Microsoft Update supported product, such as any Office suite application. When you open it for the first time, it'll prompt you to activate microsoft update and do it for you without interacting with IE.

You can also go into the apps settings and there is a section about updates where you can enable it if you're already past the first-run prompts. The specific location varies depending on the app/version, but 2007 and up all have the option.

 

[Iron Woode]

How can I enable Microsoft Update without using Internet Explorer?

easy.

turn on auto-update and it will download the updates for you. You just have to install them.

 

[Dahak]

How can I enable Microsoft Update without using Internet Explorer?

Download it manually from
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/download-ie

 

[GotNoRice]

Easiest way to do this is to open a Microsoft Update supported product, such as any Office suite application. When you open it for the first time, it'll prompt you to activate microsoft update and do it for you without interacting with IE.

Great idea!

easy.

turn on auto-update and it will download the updates for you. You just have to install them.

Turning auto-updates on or off has nothing to do with whether it's using Windows Update or Microsoft Update. It will simply auto-update patches for windows only. Besides, when I'm trying to get a build done quick, I don't have time to let auto updates do their thing.

Download it manually from
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/download-ie

I had already installed IE11 using an offline installer from over the network. I usually do that first so that I don't have to waste time downloading updates for IE8, 9, 10 for no reason. I was just trying to to get Microsoft Update to work (instead of just Windows Update).

What I ended up doing was uninstalling IE11, and using IE8 I was able to install Microsoft Update without any problem, then I re-installed IE11 by just selecting it along with all the other updates when I did the first batch of updates.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I just finished a new build (Windows 7 64-bit) and everything is working great except for some reason whenever I open internet explorer, it automatically crashes, tries to recover by closing and opening a new tab, crashes again, and does this over and over again until I force quit IE.

That in itself isn't really a problem since no one who will ever use this computer will ever use IE. The problem i'm having right now, is that currently Windows Update is set to check for updates for "windows only". If I follow the link below which usually will take me to where I can enable Microsoft Update, it opens IE which proceeds to crash over and over. If I go to that link using another browser, it just takes me to a page that tells me to use Windows Update via the Start Menu.

How can I enable Microsoft Update without using Internet Explorer?

You can opt into MU using the API. PM me if you want and I can write a powershell script to do it.

Only in Win 8.1 did Microsoft implement a MU opt-in that requires no browser.

Edit -saw your recent post. IE11 shouldn't be crashing, but OK. Glad you figured something out.

 

[RampantAndroid]

easy.

turn on auto-update and it will download the updates for you. You just have to install them.

No.

WU and MU are different services (under hklm\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Services); MU is by default only opted in WinRT devices IIRC. Otherwise, products like Office will call the WU APIs to opt in.

 

[takeru]

did you try going to control panel-internet options and:
- under advanced tab, use software rendering instead of gpu rendering
- under Programs tab, manage add-ons, disable all browser add-ons
- use "Reset Internet Explorer settings" option