Advice with Stalled Windows Update

[wunderhacker]

Hello, I just reinstalled windows on an old OEM laptop (2011 Dell Inspiron) using the laptops original disk. I am attempting to install windows updates and for several hours now it has just been showing "Checking For Updates" I've tried rebooting to no avail. Attached is a screenshot of what windows update shows. Any help would be appreciated. I know your probably going to say "Just upgrade to Windows 10" but I really feel uncomfortable with some of 10s security settings, etc.

[imreloadin]

16 minutes ago, wunderhacker said:

Hello, I just reinstalled windows on an old OEM laptop (2011 Dell Inspiron) using the laptops original disk. I am attempting to install windows updates and for several hours now it has just been showing "Checking For Updates" I've tried rebooting to no avail. Attached is a screenshot of what windows update shows. Any help would be appreciated. I know your probably going to say "Just upgrade to Windows 10" but I really feel uncomfortable with some of 10s security settings, etc.

Go to the Start Menu and typing "Services" into the search field.

Once in there scroll down the list until you see "Windows Update" and double click on it.

This should cause a new window to open and in the General tab go down to "Service Status" and click the stop button if it's running to stop the service.

 

Once that's done go to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download in File Explorer and delete everything in the folder.

After doing that go back to the Windows Update service per the previous steps and start the service again and then try checking for updates again.

[wunderhacker]

9 minutes ago, imreloadin said:

Go to the Start Menu and typing "Services" into the search field.

Once in there scroll down the list until you see "Windows Update" and double click on it.

This should cause a new window to open and in the General tab go down to "Service Status" and click the stop button if it's running to stop the service.

 

Once that's done go to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download in File Explorer and delete everything in the folder.

After doing that go back to the Windows Update service per the previous steps and start the service again and then try checking for updates again.

Thanks! It Works. Really appreciate it.

[imreloadin]

39 minutes ago, wunderhacker said:

Thanks! It Works. Really appreciate it.

Glad to hear it worked for you! Windows gets a bug up it's ass every now and then and I have to do that trick every so often across my several computers.