Windows Update working really well

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I’ve just reverted a friend’s Acer Aspire One D255 netbook back to its factory setting of Windows 7 Starter edition. I used WSUS Offline Update to bring it more or less up-to-date with security updates. When I went into Windows Update to get all the rest of the updates I must admit that I was neither looking forward to it nor did I expect it to work except incredibly slowly.

To my surprise, Windows Update showed all the outstanding Recommended and Optional updates within seconds. The Recommended list was quite long so I chose to split it into two. After installation of the first half I rebooted then went back into Windows Update again for the second half of the list. Again, the list populated within seconds and it took me no time at all to bring the netbook right up-to-date (even though the netbook has only a measly 1GB RAM).

Has anybody else noticed this vast improvement in Windows Update in Windows 7 or was I just incredibly lucky?

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My experience is the same as yours.

I have Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I was in Woody’s Group B until around mid November, the last time I manually installed the security-only update. I then decided a few days ago to move to a more traditional method of updating — let it download all “important” updates, and I will decide whether or not to install them. The initial downloading of all missing updates went very fast. Also, the install of the ones I chose (the monthly rollup, all Windows security updates, plus .Net and MS Office) went fast.

My Windows 8.1 laptop is on full automatic for updates. I never ever see it updating, but it is always up to date. Also, it is working very well; it hasn’t been hosed by a rogue update.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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My experience is the same as yours.

Thanks, Jim… that’s good to know. I had this weird feeling that it was some strange fluke that updating had gone so well on such an under-specified device.

(As an aside, I’ve been a bit surprised at the number of updates for RDP.)

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I also used WSUS on a factory reset Win 7 laptop which downloaded and installed 156 of the original 251 updates.

When they were done, I also went to Windows Update to see the rest waiting to download, which downloaded and installed without any problems.

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I also used WSUS on a factory reset Win 7 laptop which downloaded and installed 156 of the original 251 updates.

When they were done, I also went to Windows Update to see the rest waiting to download, which downloaded and installed without any problems.

Thanks for the second confirmation. I’m just a little surprised that there’s been no news from MS about ‘Hey, we fixed Windows Update’.

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On that machine while I got the updates, they just refused to download and is why I turned to WSUS.

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OK, the magic speedup system is called KB 3172605, and it’s not exactly a secret. Woody has been talking about this for, oh, 8 months now?

How to speed up Windows 7 Update scans—forever

I realize Woody isn’t a Microsoft employee, but he’s a fixture around here and on the IT scene generally.

Anyhow the good news is that Microsoft has delivered a fix for slow updates, even though it has some lint attached to it!

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OK, the magic speedup system is called KB 3172605, and it’s not exactly a secret. Woody has been talking about this for, oh, 8 months now?

How to speed up Windows 7 Update scans—forever

I realize Woody isn’t a Microsoft employee, but he’s a fixture around here and on the IT scene generally.

Anyhow the good news is that Microsoft has delivered a fix for slow updates, even though it has some lint attached to it!

Yes, but KB3172605 isn’t at the top of the list when you are starting from scratch after a factory reset which was why I ended up using WSUS.

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OK, the magic speedup system is called KB 3172605, and it’s not exactly a secret. Woody has been talking about this for, oh, 8 months now?

I took screenshots. I don’t understand why they appear to show that the ‘magic speedup’ KB 3172605 was downloaded midway rather than before Windows Update was working faster:

46780-debunk_magic_speedup

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Well then, there’s a puzzle! Could it be the new rollup patch system Microsoft implemented? But that’s for Windows 10 only… and it wouldn’t explain why WUS/WSUS continue to list the patches separately…

:confused:

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