TL;DR: There's only one change
to previous month due to August Patchday:
KB3177725 joins the list.
Validity/Coverage
Valid as of:
Aug 2016 (2016-08-09)
Valid until (presumably):
Sep 2016 (2016-09-13)
This HowTo is valid for Win7 SP1 and Vista SP2, which have been newly installed or haven't been updated for
some time. It should also help on systems that were up-to-date last month - just install the missing updates
from the list below in this case.
These instructions were only tested on Win7 SP1. However, the list of updates should speed up the
search for updates on Vista SP2, too.
Solution to the issue
The term "solution" might be a little bit exaggerated, since the following HowTo only tries to make sure that the
Update Agent doesn't need to check all updates, so the check for new updates is done faster. Futhermore, it's only a
temporary solution; most likely the issue will appear again with the next Patchday.
Install the following updates
BEFORE letting Windows search for updates, to avoid this very search taking "forever":
On newly installed Win7 SP1 systems it's not really necessary to install the updates from the list above; it's sufficient
to install any of the current Windows Update Clients (December 2015 or later) from the table below. But since the updates
from the list will be installed automatically anyway, it doesn't matter if they're installed manually beforehand.
To reduce memory and CPU usage while searching for updates, the following updates should be installed as well:
- Windows Update Client
It's sufficient to install one of these packages. The current version is highlighted in bold.
Every one of them reduces the Update Agent's memory usage (having a good effect, especially on systems with less RAM).
- The following update is (most likely) not required if the Windows Update Client of December 2015 or later is already installed:
KB3102810, reduces Update Agent's CPU load.
Steps to take after Windows installation
- Disable Automatic Updates:
Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update > Change settings > "Never check for updates"
- (Optional) Stop "Windows Update" service: Open Windows Task Manager > Tab "Services" > Right-click on "wuauserv" > Stop service
- Download the updates mentioned above and install them via WUSA on a CMD shell (as Administrator):
start /wait "" "%SystemRoot%\system32\wusa.exe" "C:\full\path\to\Update.msu" /quiet /norestart
Tip: Use the TAB key to let the system complete the directory and file names, to avoid typing errors.
- Important: Since WUSA won't output any errors when using above command, even if an update can't be installed at all
(e.g. because of wrong architecture), it's recommended to check whether the updates have been installed correctly:
Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update > Installed Updates
If there's missing at least one of the updates that were just installed, try to install it again by double-clicking
it to find out why it wasn't installed.
- Reboot the system.
- Now let Windows search for updates, which should be finished in less than 15 minutes.
- Re-enable automatic updates as needed (see step to disable them, but select one of the options to check for updates automatically now),
and install the remaining updates as usual.
Some automation
To ease the pain of installing multiple systems you can use e.g.
this script which is updated regularly.
Put the script and all updates in the same directory - a USB flash drive or network share may be a good place. The script determines the Windows version
(Vista or Win7), its architecture (32 or 64 bit) and so on. It makes use of the command given above. Just double-click the script - after you've disabled
automatic updates (see above) - and it installs all required updates automatically, including the latest Windows Update Agent (if present).
Reboot the system after the script is finished, and you're done. Re-enable automatic updates as needed.
If you intend to install Windows Updates on a whole network of systems, it's probably better to use some dedicated solution for this, e.g.
WSUS Offline Update, which already installs the prerequisites in current releases.
Misc
If you are curious why the search for updates takes such a long time, check out the
background information.
Thanks to T. Wittrock, author of
WSUS Offline Update, Denniss and the community.
Contact
You can reach me via the following forums:
Regards
Dalai