(RESOLVED) Windows7 update suck at 0%

[YellowJersey]

Just did a fresh install of Windows 7 home premium 64bit on a Lenovo T430. It processed a bunch of updates just fine, but now it doesn't want to download any new updates. Windows Update is stuck at 0% downloaded and it's been like that for hours. I tried rebooting it, starting again, but that doesn't seem to help. Any suggestions?

*sigh* This is why I switched to Linux for my machine.

[Windows7ge]

I could be wrong, but I thought I heard Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 7 updates. You can't download them any longer.

[YellowJersey]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

I could be wrong, but I thought I heard Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 7 updates. You can't download them any longer.

I hope you're wrong. *sweats profusely*

[BigGreenThing]

Same thing happened last time I did a clean win 7 install, I had to install a few updates manually and then the updater worked normally after that. Try solution 1 in this article:

 

https://www.askvg.com/fix-windows-7-keeps-checking-for-updates-for-hours/

 

They haven't pulled the plug altogether (yet) but they're not making it easy. lately I've just kept windows update off and get the security-only updates from the MS catalog each month.

[Windows7ge]

OK, a little bit of googling. I'm 1/2 correct. Mainstream support was cut in 2015 (I'm assuming they mean feature packages) but security updates will continue to be supported up until 2020.

[YellowJersey]

10 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

OK, a little bit of googling. I'm 1/2 correct. Mainstream support was cut in 2015 (I'm assuming they mean feature packages) but security updates will continue to be supported up until 2020.

Well, that's good to hear. I'll leave it running overnight and see what happens.

[m0k]

yeah unfortunately this is a very common issue with windows 7 updates - and has existed for a very long time. 

In my experience with the 5 computers in the house its been resolved in various ways

sometimes you have to literally leave it  on overnight 

sometimes you have to manually disable and re-enable the windows update service

sometimes you have to disable the optional updates from being installed - some of the optional updates caused the glitch as well

I had to manually uninstall a particular optional update before it was usable again.

 

All in the meanwhile your cpu and ram usage will be maxed out ....

 

I would recommend doing the free windows 10 upgrade - thats what i did on all my computers and havent had any issues, even for ,my ancient computers running Core 2 Duo 

 

 

[YellowJersey]

2 minutes ago, mok said:

yeah unfortunately this is a very common issue with windows 7 updates - and has existed for a very long time. 

In my experience with the 5 computers in the house its been resolved in various ways

sometimes you have to literally leave it  on overnight 

sometimes you have to manually disable and re-enable the windows update service

sometimes you have to disable the optional updates from being installed - some of the optional updates caused the glitch as well

I had to manually uninstall a particular optional update before it was usable again.

 

All in the meanwhile your cpu and ram usage will be maxed out ....

 

I would recommend doing the free windows 10 upgrade - thats what i did on all my computers and havent had any issues, even for ,my ancient computers running Core 2 Duo 

 

 

I actually have Windows 10 on it, so it's a dual boot machine. I need Windows 7 on it, though, as it's used via wifi hotspot with limited data sometimes, so I can't afford for Windows 10 to download updates out in the field.

[m0k]

9 minutes ago, YellowJersey said:

I actually have Windows 10 on it, so it's a dual boot machine. I need Windows 7 on it, though, as it's used via wifi hotspot with limited data sometimes, so I can't afford for Windows 10 to download updates out in the field.

if youre using windows 10 pro you can stop updates from automatically running from the settings. 

look into getting windows 10 pro if you havent already, that way you can ditch windows 7 altogether and no worry about using data on win10

 

 

[meenmeen1103]

6 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

I actually have Windows 10 on it, so it's a dual boot machine. I need Windows 7 on it, though, as it's used via wifi hotspot with limited data sometimes, so I can't afford for Windows 10 to download updates out in the field.

Have you set that wifi hotspot network as a metered connection in network properties? That, along with a setting under the Update & Security > Advanced Settings should prevent updates from downloading on metered connections

 

6 hours ago, mok said:

if youre using windows 10 pro you can stop updates from automatically running from the settings. 

look into getting windows 10 pro if you havent already, that way you can ditch windows 7 altogether and no worry about using data on win10

Does my comment above only apply to 10 Pro? 

[m0k]

34 minutes ago, meenmeen1103 said:

Have you set that wifi hotspot network as a metered connection in network properties? That, along with a setting under the Update & Security > Advanced Settings should prevent updates from downloading on metered connections

 

34 minutes ago, meenmeen1103 said:

Does my comment above only apply to 10 Pro? 

Yes this is also what i recommend to people just to be safe, i think with metered connection enabled it wont even download any updates let alone install them.

In addition to that in windows 10 pro you can specify the kind of updates you do want to receive. ex. in my screenshot below i have it configured so that i only receive crucial/security updates and i have it setup so that those big feature updates are delayed by a whole year. 

And you can even enable "pause updates" which disables all updates for 35days at a time

 

[GoodBytes]

7 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

Just did a fresh install of Windows 7 home premium 64bit on a Lenovo T430. It processed a bunch of updates just fine, but now it doesn't want to download any new updates. Windows Update is stuck at 0% downloaded and it's been like that for hours. I tried rebooting it, starting again, but that doesn't seem to help. Any suggestions?

*sigh* This is why I switched to Linux for my machine.

Windows 7 has an issue with Windows Update that started to appear once the OS had a massive amount of updates.

Microsoft fixed it, but you need to get the update.

You can easily wait 4h or more depending on your performance of your system.

 

[Windows7ge]

7 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

I need Windows 7 on it, though, as it's used via wifi hotspot with limited data sometimes, so I can't afford for Windows 10 to download updates out in the field.

If you only need it for general purpose applications out in the field have you considered Linux?

 

Edit:

Oh, wait...you did...nvm.

[YellowJersey]

4 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

If you only need it for general purpose applications out in the field have you considered Linux?

 

Edit:

Oh, wait...you did...nvm.

 

 I fell in love with Linux Mint back in 2015 after my old laptop stopped being able to run Windows 7. It really breathed new life into a machine that's now approaching 10 years old. I keep a Windows partition on my photo editing laptop for my editing software, but other than that I use Mint almost exclusively.

[YellowJersey]

Solved! Woke up this morning to find the updates downloaded and installed. Thanks to all who commented.