Last Update:
2017-03-14
Change notes
Microsoft apparently links to the Microsoft Catalog only starting in November 2016 - as
announced in April 2016.
So far the updates were available in the Download Center, too. This means that the download links are different than usual:
the download link of the x86 version of an update lists all archtectures of this particular update (x64 among them).
So, a little bit more attention should be paid when downloading an update, to avoid downloading it for the wrong architecture.
If you're a user of Intel Bluetooth Hardware and have trouble with BT due to KB3172605, you can take a look at the page
October page; it contains some links that might be helpful in resolving
the issues.
Validity/Coverage
Valid as of:
Oct 2016 (2016-10-11)
Valid until:
Until MS breaks something again
Note: The above dates only refer to the "speedup" update, the "magic" patch, not the whole page!
This HowTo is valid for Win7 SP1 and 8.1, 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.
These instructions were only tested on Win7 SP1. Due to the changes to the Windows Updates I can't make any more
statements about Vista SP2; I just don't have the time to include Vista in my tests, even less since Vista will be
out of support in April 2017.
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.
Install the following updates
BEFORE letting Windows search for updates, to avoid this very search taking "forever".
It's sufficient to install
one of the Servicing Stack Updates. The current version is highlighted in bold.
Important: One of the Servicing Stack Updates is
required before July 2016 Rollup can be installed!
Maybe you wonder why July 2016 Rollup. The answer is simple: This particular update contains a more recent
(as far as I know the latest) version of the Update Agent. With this update the time needed to search for new updates is
reasonable, almost regardless of the updates installed on the system; the search times vary, of course, but not
as ridiculously much as without July 2016 Rollup.
Monthly updates
The Security-Only update is, as opposed to the Monthly Rollup, NOT cumulative, meaning that it contains only the security updates
for the current month, not those of previous months. So you must install the Security-Only updates of previous months, too, if you
have decided to go this way (security updates only). The previous month is linked at the top of the page.
Vista
Since there is neither a Servicing Stack Update nor a Rollup for Windows Vista, the differences between Win7 and Vista are going to
increase, starting in October 2016. So I can't make any more recommendations for this OS. Nonetheless I'll list those updates
for Vista that will most likely speed up the search, limited to new updates (you can find the old ones on the pages of previous months).
Vista users may try the following updates:
If none of them helps to speed up the search, you might find some "speedup" update somewhere in the more recent posts of
this very long VistaX64 forum thread or in the
Security Bulletin Summaries
for the current month; so far it's often been an update for the Windows Kernel (win32k.sys).
Important: You should verify the update's KB numbers before installing them, since the download links in the Security
Bulletins might link to different or non-existent updates!
Steps to take after Windows installation
- Disable Automatic Updates:
Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update > Change settings > "Never check for updates"
- Reboot the system (in case the "Windows Update" services is currently checking for updates).
- 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, Win7 or Win8.1), 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,
Canadian Tech,
Woody Leonhard, Cliff Hogan, lmacri and the community.
Contact
You can reach me via the following forums:
Regards
Dalai