Karlston Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Early results look promising: the many-hours-long Win7 waits may be behind us For the past five months, there has been a crescendo of complaints about slow Windows 7 scans. The check for Windows updates -- a simple process that should take a few minutes -- has ballooned to two, three, four, eight, or more hours for many (I'm tempted to say most) Win7 customers. Microsoft claims to have finally solved the problem with speedup patch KB 3161647, but there are a couple of gotchas. The monthly Win7 patch whack-a-mole has been reaching Keystone Kops proportions. In April, poster EP on AskWoody.com discovered that installing two completely unrelated patches -- KB 3138612 and KB 3145739 -- could reduce Win7 update scan times from hours down to minutes. In May, EP found that installing a totally different patch, KB 3153199, also did the trick. In June, the magic bullet came from KB 3161664. All of these solutions had one thing in common: they involved replacing win32k.sys. Apart from that, they seemed to be completely random. A German site, wu.krelay.de, issued new speed-up advisories for March, April, May, and June, all with intricate tables of the downloads that could shave hours off Win7 update tasks. Every month there were different patches. But what really got my goat: Those hours-long waits generally involved the computer just sitting there. There was little activity over the internet, almost no activity on the PC, while "check for updates" kept checking and checking and checking. Millions of people were sitting, hour upon hour, waiting for Microsoft's servers in the sky to get their act together. Of course, conspiracy theorists took this as one more sign that Microsoft doesn't give a rat's patootie about Windows 7 users. There aren't many companies that would treat half their installed user base to such an experience. Here are the two gotchas with Microsoft's official fix: First, you have to install last year's servicing stack update, KB 3020369, before you can install the speedup patch. Microsoft doesn't document that anywhere, but various reports indicate that you need it installed. Note that there were problems with KB 3020369 triggering a "Stage 3 of 3" hang. There's a description and a workaround in my post from a year ago. Second, Microsoft doesn't have a download for the Win7 scan fix by itself. The only way you can get KB 3161647 is by installing the update rollup KB 3161608. KB 3161647 contains the "fix for a Windows Update error 0x8007000E on some computers while they are updating" as well as "some reliability improvements." The update rollup KB 3161608 includes four fixes that are completely unrelated. Confused yet? This means Windows 7 users must install six unrelated patches in order to get Microsoft's Win7 updating mess untangled -- seven unrelated patches, if you include KB 3020369. If one of those seven patches isn't to your liking, sorry bucko, you're relegated to the eight-hour-wait list. KB 3161608 is only starting to roll out to Win7 users, so if you haven't seen it yet, be patient. As best I can tell, there's no analogous patch for Vista customers. It's still too early to tell if this is a permanent fix, and won't really know if Microsoft actually fixed the problem until July. Do the math. Half a billion PCs times two or three or four lost hours per machine -- and this from your favorite productivity company. Is it any wonder people are turning off automatic updates? Many thanks to EP, NC, ch100, and other sleuths on the AskWoody.com fora. Source: Microsoft releases KB 3161647, KB 3161608 to fix slow Windows 7 update scans (InfoWorld - Woody Leonhard) InfoWorld - Woody on Windows AskWoody.com - Woody Leonhard's no-bull news, tips and help for Windows and Office Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 I've not had no trouble out of Windows 7 updates for the 2 last patch Tuesdays the last trouble i had was April on the laptop here . Maybe they will break it again with these updates : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batu69 Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Installed KB 3161608 yesterday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mona Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Damn, my (W7) Windows Update stopped working (= finding updates) in late December 2015 and there was no way to fix it. (tried many suggestions) Today have read this OP article, downloaded and installed KB 3161608 (KB 3020369 had been installed earlier) and ..... my Windows Update managed to find all missing updates - first time in 6 months ! (63 missing patches !) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiz4rd Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 No prob here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vjcobra Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Thanks for the valuable information ... Just installed KB3161608 ... Crossed my fingers, hopefully all will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordan Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 Additional infos: June 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 fixes slow Windows Update The June 2016 update rollup package for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is out. It comes with important bug fixes and improvements including a fix for the infamous issue with Windows Update, which causes Windows 7 to take a very long time to finish checking for updates. Sometimes it goes on for hours. Although we showed you already how you can install the Windows 7 Convenience Rollup and integrate some other important updates so Windows Update's slow checking for updates is fixed, it never hurts to install the latest Windows Update client. A new Windows Update client is included in the June 2016 Update Rollup. Microsoft recommends applying this update rollup as part of your regular maintenance routines. It comes with the following changes: KB3154228 32-bit icons can't be loaded in OleLoadPictureEx in Windows KB3153727 Windows Installer with certain actions can't be installed on Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 KB3161647 Windows Update Client for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: June 2016 KB3161897 WDS deployment fails when UEFI clients are in routed environments in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 KB3161639 Update to add new cipher suites to Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge in Windows KB3163644 Microsoft Office 2010 doesn't start when EMET is enabled in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 The update package for June 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1 has the ID KB3161608 on Windows Update. It is marked as an optional update, so you will need to look for KB3161608 in optional updates in the Control Panel\Windows Update. Alternatively, you can use the links below. KB3161608 June 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 direct download links All supported x86-based versions of Windows 7 All supported x64-based versions of Windows 7 All supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 All supported IA-64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wakker Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 Have the same problem with win 8.1 now, who has an idea how to fix this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WALLONN7 Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 1 hour ago, wakker said: Have the same problem with win 8.1 now, who has an idea how to fix this? Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wakker Posted November 10, 2016 Share Posted November 10, 2016 Again having the "waiting forever on updates" issue on my windows 8.1 64 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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