Windows 7 Updates

[ohio_grad_06]

Yeah, kinda like if someone still wants you to work on an XP system. I'll do it because I make money on them, but kinda like people, let these computers die....

 

[~Wendy~]

Finally - Something from MS on Win7 updates. (Still don't understand why there isn't a Service Pack 2 for Win7.)

Thank you for the explanation-answers a lot of questions.

 

[Wheelie]

We wrote this procedure up in February on Technibbles. It has sure helped the 3 of us and front the feedback it sounds like it helped some fellow Technibblers. Unfortunately there just doesn't seem to be a majic bullet for this issue. We have used WSUS Offline with some success also.

In our shop we do a lot of re-imaging of customers' computers using Windows 7 Home Prem. and Professional. The past few months however, after clean installs of Windows 7, windows update fails to find updates no matter what course of action we take to fix it. Each failure usually comes with a different error code each time. This appears to be a common problem with 7 after extensively searching online and through these forums. There are a multitude of different fixes out there and some worked for us; most didn't.

So without further ado, I'm sharing with you all a legitimate *fix (it worked flawlessly on 3 out of 3 fresh Win 7 installs both x86 & x64) we finally found yesterday after hours of scratching our heads:
*Note this has only been tested on freshly CLEAN installs of Win 7 Home Premium & Professional with Service Pack 1! If you don't have Service Pack 1 installed, do so before attempting this.

1) Go here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3135445 download the correct bit version, save it somewhere on the PC (I would create a folder on desktop).

2) Save this in the same folder: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/what-is-the-system-update-readiness-tool

3) Disconnect from the internet. If using WiFi, disconnect and make sure to uncheck the "automatically connect to network" box.

4) Reboot. Make sure windows is offline, and install the first file KB3135445. It may take a few minutes. After installation, reboot again.

5) After boot, install the second file. The SUR Tool is a large file and may take much longer than the first one. The progress bar won't show anything for some reason. Patience, Padawan.

6) After SUR install, reboot again. Upon boot, reconnect to the internets and manually check for updates just like you normally would. Your mileage may vary, but ours took a bit to get going. In a few minutes, you should see a notification of some kind down in the toolbar regarding installation of updates, then the Windows Update icon. Success!

Follow these instructions to the T, make sure you have the right files and you should be golden! Any questions or unexpected problems, feel free to ask. This fix was a huuuge relief since we came across the update issues DAILY. Have a nice day :}

I want to thank RVC again and to reiterate that this is the way (for now anyway) to get the "online" Windows 7 update process to happen quickly. It has really improved my delivery times and that is good!

COUPLE OBSERVATIONS:

1. In the many times we've used this method we've noticed that about 55 to 75 Critical Updates sometimes show up in the Optional Updates area and they are italicized. The "normal" Optional Updates are NOT italicized. So just know you should also go into the Optional Updates and manually check all the italicized updates to get them to install (important!).
2. Another observation we've noticed is some HP computers can take 2 to 3 days to simply detect the 200+ updates. Crazy when this started happening about 2 months ago.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Just download/install KB3020369 and KB 3172605 (combined..takes under 5 minutes on a slow rig, under 2 minutes on a fast rig)....reboot, let it sniff for updates (around 1-10 minutes)....tons of updates will show up like normal, download/install, done.
Those 2 updates get rid of that painfully long "first check for updates" that seems like a takes a day or overnight lately.

Some rigs, depending on what level Windows is, suggest you stop the Windows Update service before running the downloads above.

Been doing it this way for months...works well. No more hours of wait. Just a couple of minutes at the most.

 

[dcomp12]

Well im going to test some of these on my tester computer because some say 6 hours....I have 150 down on SHAW and still takes like almost 12 hours each time. Another thing is that I had to do it in Batches of 80-100 for the first two rounds making sure that Framwork is not the ones downloading because I had a lot of the dreaded windows failed update reverting....the WORSE thing to see after all that time.

Also always remember to put settings of update to never look for new updates. God I hate it so much and everytime I do this I always think that they are doing this on purpose so people stop using Windows 7. Good thing I work on multiple computers so I Dont notice it much.

I always say to them to expect 3 days before turn around.

So after reading and going to try these suggestions I will welcome it with Open arms!

 

[Diggs]

making sure that Framwork is not the ones downloading because I had a lot of the dreaded windows failed update reverting....the WORSE thing to see after all that time.

Follow Stonecats procedure and you don't have to worry about the .net framework installing separately. Everything happens at once with no issues or multiple reboots.

 

[brandonkick]

I use an up to date WSUS offline.... has been working rather well.

It will do it's own thing for about an hour or two, and then after it stops
and I reboot the machine ( I set it to shut down upon completion) I then
fire up windows updates and it generally pulls down another 15 or so
updates.

WSUS offline usually installs around 175 updates on it's own.

The next win 7 nuke and pave I do I'll have to try stone cats method.

 

[BO Terry]

A lot of people here, including me, use WSUSOffline. See http://www.wsusoffline.net/ You do a one-time download of all the updates you want and store it on a local HD. You can then use it to apply the updates to any number of PCs. Once-a-month, right after "Patch Tuesday" I'll run the downloader again to pickup any new updates and I'm good for another month

p.s. WSUSOffline also contains the updates for systems other than Windows, such as MS Office and dotNet.
The WSUSOffline database is about 21GB and the Snappy Driver database is about 12GB, small enough to fit on a 64GB flash drive which you can carry when you go onsite.

Hope this helps.

When updating your flash drive after patch Tuesday, do you select all of the current serviceable OS options (7, 8, 10 plus server options) and then just let the individual system find what is applicable?

 

[nlinecomputers]

If you don't select all then you will not get those patches downloaded. The software you run on the client machine is smart enough to figure out what Windows version to run.

 

[glricht]

When updating your flash drive after patch Tuesday, do you select all of the current serviceable OS options (7, 8, 10 plus server options) and then just let the individual system find what is applicable?

I download everything that's available so I've got it all. When applying the updates, only those updates that are applicable on the system I'm using will get processed. Works really well.

 

[sctechsystems]

We use WSUS offline, lives on a Samba share. updated once a week. Run it and forget it on each new build of a machine.