News Microsoft Says Windows Updates May Need up to 8 Hours to Complete

[MasterMadBones]

2. Making the updates much smaller and only including in an update those components that are affected by other updates. That is to say release an update of xxxxxxx and because it provides an interface for yyyyyyy include it also, or rather include only the parts of yyyyyyy affected by the update to xxxxxxx. This will make for many more updates but each could be done quick and easily, possibly during system shutdown and system start up. If the updates do not require a reboot you might release have them execute in background. With this do the security updates first. As it would run in background except for those few updates that actually require a system restart it should be less annoying to customers.

Isn't this what Windows 7 used to do? Installing update 1 of 186...

Windows 10 actually already installs some updates without needing a restart, so I assume what you see is what you get there.

 

[castl3bravo]

I'm not sure if Microsoft's update mechanism is to blame, or if potato computers or Comcasticly slow internet should take the blame for this one. I am inclined to blame service providers given the slow state of most US internet connections outside select cities with fiber.

What I do know is that a Microsoft Surface Pro 7 I use recently decided it no longer wanted to download updates...any updates. Metered connection settings, update sharing, and network connection settings all had zero impact. The troubleshooter also failed to fix anything. The solution? Create a new local user and update from that account. 8 hours isn't even enough time when your updater has these sort of basic problems, Microsoft.

The basic issue is one has to leave their computer on over night if updates set to occur late at night. The way I do updates is ask the system to go look after I turn it on. If it does then I do the update and go back to browsing or gaming. Then after I'm done if Windows wants to reboot I tell go for it. Really simple and not that complicated from my perspective.

However, that said, it's still super annoying and somewhat concerning that a product driven software strategy creates so many holes that need constant updates to keep up with all the zero day exploits. You'd think they've learned OS security is a #1 priority during initial development of each major version of Windows, but apparently not

 

[InsanityMoose]

That feeling when you show up to an important meeting with a potential customer, pull out the laptop with the powerpoint presentation you spent weeks preparing, and the computer says "Installing updates, please wait 8 hours" (not literally, but it feels like weeks). No wonder "meeting people" prefer macbooks.

 

[USAFRet]

That feeling when you show up to an important meeting with a potential customer, pull out the laptop with the powerpoint presentation you spent weeks preparing, and the computer says "Installing updates, please wait 8 hours" (not literally, but it feels like weeks). No wonder "meeting people" prefer macbooks.

I call that poor planning.

Updates can be paused with a couple of clicks.

 

[little_me]

I have uptime of 49 days (not anymore, I rebooted to see if that helps, with MS it helps with a surprising amount of things)
all windows update can say is... "Your device is missing important security and quality fixes"
uh.. sure, install them? except there are none listed.
check for updates, it runs, gives nothing new. optional updates have nothing... what do you WANT me to do, MS???
latest updates are all optional, malicious software removal tool from 11th jan and .net framework update on 26th. after that, nothing listed or installed.

so.. yeah, it'd be best if MS could get updater to work, even on 8 hour delay.

 

[bigdragon]

That feeling when you show up to an important meeting with a potential customer, pull out the laptop with the powerpoint presentation you spent weeks preparing, and the computer says "Installing updates, please wait 8 hours" (not literally, but it feels like weeks). No wonder "meeting people" prefer macbooks.

This is me when I start the workday off at the office. "Why aren't you working yet?!" Because Windows is installing updates. "It was supposed to do that overnight!" Well it didn't. It waited for me to log in. "30 minutes of updates?!" Yeah, you forced me to use this potato computer -- what were you expecting?

I feel like Microsoft had perfected the whole update mechanism with Windows XP, Vista, and 7. It never used to get in the way back then. The trend-chasing of copying what Android is doing with regard to updates has led to so many problems.

 

[InsanityMoose]

I have uptime of 49 days (not anymore, I rebooted to see if that helps, with MS it helps with a surprising amount of things)
all windows update can say is... "Your device is missing important security and quality fixes"
uh.. sure, install them? except there are none listed.
check for updates, it runs, gives nothing new. optional updates have nothing... what do you WANT me to do, MS???
latest updates are all optional, malicious software removal tool from 11th jan and .net framework update on 26th. after that, nothing listed or installed.

so.. yeah, it'd be best if MS could get updater to work, even on 8 hour delay.

I often get it the other way around. Boot a computer and install updates. When it's done, I check Windows Update and it says "You are up to date". Then I press "check for updates", and it shows 300 new pending updates that require many reboots and constant interaction throughout the day.

 

[InsanityMoose]

I call that poor planning.

Updates can be paused with a couple of clicks.

May be poor planning not preparing the computer and installing all updates before heading out, but you can't postpone an update during windows booting.
For people whose main field is not IT, this is not obvious.

 

[USAFRet]

May be poor planning not preparing the computer and installing all updates before heading out, but you can't postpone an update during windows booting.
For people whose main field is not IT, this is not obvious.

You put it on a 7 day pause a day or two before the big presentation.
And/or do the big update a day or two before.

Just have to be smarter than the PC.

 

[InsanityMoose]

You put it on a 7 day pause a day or two before the big presentation.
And/or do the big update a day or two before.

Just have to be smarter than the PC.

Main problem there is that the user has to be smarter than the pc. This is not 1979, deep understanding of how a computesr work
should not be required to operate it efficiently. Press "install updates and shut down", and when you start it up the next day it still says "installing updates"?

Preemptively postponing updates just in case they may come at an inconvenient time is also not optimal practice. Whenever you open your laptop, you want to use it there and then. Start every day by pressing postpone updates, and all is well.
At some point they have to be installed, or you will have security risks.
Telling a busy exec who has never been hacked to schedule regular time for updating his laptop is also not popular.

I have no solutions, only rants.

 

[USAFRet]

I have no solutions, only rants.

Same here.

But, updates need to happen.

"Boss...plug your thing into the network, and leave it ON overnight. Let it run whatever updates our Active Directory needs to push."

 

[drivinfast247]

In part, this kind of garbage is what drove me to abandon Windows and adopt Chromebooks. Chromebooks update every four weeks. The update occurs in the background and then just waits for your next restart to replace the older version. Restarting takes only a few seconds, similar to the amount of time that it takes for a sleeping Windows PC to "wake up." I have no choice but to use Windows at work, which is just fine because the IT group rolls out updates. For all the bellyaching and as truly bad as Windows is today, it was far, far worse in the past. It was a nearly unusable house of cards. It has improved exponentially every decade. But, alas, it's still pretty bad.

I guess if all you need it to do is browse the internet that's fine.

I guess I'm just lucky that all my Win10 machines operate without a problem.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Same here.

But, updates need to happen.

"Boss...plug your thing into the network, and leave it ON overnight. Let it run whatever updates our Active Directory needs to push."

This is all just weird to me. In my corporate days, our standing policy was to leave your computer on when you went home for the day. Lock your computer and turn the monitor off. Sometimes, I'd come in and see that my computer had rebooted during the night, but I don't recall it ever being a long time to install an update when I came in the next morning.

-Wolf sends

 

[Chung Leong]

That feeling when you show up to an important meeting with a potential customer, pull out the laptop with the powerpoint presentation you spent weeks preparing, and the computer says "Installing updates, please wait 8 hours" (not literally, but it feels like weeks). No wonder "meeting people" prefer macbooks.

Happened to me before where I shut down my desktop just before leaving on a trip only to realize that I'd forgotten to print out the boarding pass. Turned it back on and--doh!--Windows Update.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Their huge updates are driving me towards Linux. Linux updates are very small and fast and I can update when I want to

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I don’t have a problem with frequent updates but I do have a problem with hardware and BIOS updates. Windows updates is known to download and install BIOS on Alienware PC’s which can cause system board failures, which then require a new motherboard. I have a PC that I just disabled Windows Updates because it‘s for Blizzard and Steam games. It gets no web browser use.

 

[USAFRet]

This is all just weird to me. In my corporate days, our standing policy was to leave your computer on when you went home for the day. Lock your computer and turn the monitor off. Sometimes, I'd come in and see that my computer had rebooted during the night, but I don't recall it ever being a long time to install an update when I came in the next morning.

-Wolf sends

Thats the way our system is.
Leave your systems on, all the time. Let the network do all its updates.

Rarely, but sometimes, we get a "This system will restart in the next 2 hours. Or now, if you want."