Windows 7 not downloading updates

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LonelyMan

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Jun 22, 2012
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My computer is not downloading updates. Windows 7 SP1. It just says Downloading updates....still at 0% after 30 min. Updates were around 2.1 gb or something.
 
Solution
I fixed it without doing anything special except download and install the Office updates first, which worked first time, and then download the critical updates, which hanged a while, but worked after.
The reason I think I will downgrade back to windows 7 is because Asus did not release any windows 10 compatible drivers for my maximus v formula mobo, and my computer is from summer 2012. There are a couple of things that I want to do on my windows 7 before upgrading for good, so that's why I want to upgrade and then revert back. Plus, compatibility with my mobo is non existent. I could always do the upgrade on July 20 or close to the end date, wait for August 1, and then revert back to windows 7.

And I have a couple of torrented games from when I first bought my computer and before I found steam and steam sales, and I don't want to be flagged on their servers when I update to windows 10. I read somewhere that windows 10 knows if you run torrented files and will flag you. I want to avoid that, so I'm going to do a clean install of windows 7 before upgrading.
 
Current Win 7, to Win 10, then back to Win 7....then back to Win 10 (retaining the free bit) at some random point in the future is a completely unknown quantity.

"I think it will work" is unknown, because no one has (obviously) ever done it.
Will your system rollback to Win 7? Sure, probably. Will you be able to retain that Win 10? Completely unknown.
This method of a free upgrade for a specified period of time is all new for MS.

You won't know it 'works' until after this free period expires.

But...Win 7 or Win 10. Just do it...one or the other.
Extended support for 7 does not run out into summer 2020. Win 10 is good, but it is not THAT great a deal to worry about going back and forth, etc.


And Win 10 on old hardware? My 2009 era low end Toshiba laptop works just fine with Win 10.
It was slow with Win 7, slow with 8 and 8.1, and no slower now with Win 10.
Obviously, Toshiba has not released and Win 10 specific drivers for it. But it works.
 
exactly, i have win 10 on a number of older systems and no problems with drivers. only thing i can't get driver side is a igp driver for the older atom cpu's. still can't figure out how to get the win 7 driver working on 10 so it is stuck on generic driver. but that is literally the only driver i have failed to get on any of the systems i have put win 10 on. a good 6 in my house and a solid 30+ for clients. across all ages of systems. don't give it another worry and just move to win 10. it's a solid OS and has a lot of features worth the upgrade.
 
I have Windows 10 on a 1999 vintage HP desktop along with the Vista it came with and 8.1 in a triple boot system with 6 GB of RAM and an Intel E7400 CPU. All 3 boot and work just fine, although my use for Vista is getting more and more rare. YMMV

Good luck.
 
like i say in the thread i linked to before http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3062210/windows-update-roll-released.html#17990767

grab them all and then use the couple simple tools to block the ones you don't want. if you don't mind the telemetry ones, then leave me be. but they are 2 simple tools that block telemetry and win 10 updates. easier than figuring out which updates to avoid and to hide and then wonder if they will be unhidden, making you recheck the ones you don't want everytime you run update. if you already have them but block them, they won't show up anymore.
 


Wait, if I want to upgrade to windows 10, why do I need the GWX control panel program? I know you can upgrade to windows 10 using windows update, or do an ISO or USB bootable. So if I want to do it using windows update, I'd need the GWX update on my windows 7 no? And once I upgrade to windows 10, I'll play around with it for a few days and if there are no problems, I can do a clean install of windows 10 afterwards and install anti-beacon on the fresh install to block telemetry and change some settings for privacy and automatic updates.
 


did not realize you are trying to get win 10 and not just update win 7. as matt says, simply use the creation tool to get the iso and run it from win 7 and it will update no problem. you only need sp1 installed and nothing else.

this thread could have been a ton shorter and much easier to answer if it was clear you were trying to install win 10.
 
I did not want to at the beginning, I changed my mind over time. But, playing Gears of War Ultimate Edition on the pc is too good to pass up, and free Forza 6 Apex. I've watched a video of how to turn off all telemetry and whatnot, to install spybot anti-beacon and glasswire, and possibly turn off automatic updates so I can install what I want and when I want, and not have a reboot mid game.....
 


There have been situations where certain updates would cause problems for a lot of people. That and knowing what gets installed on my computer is why I want to turn automatic updates off.

Are there any guides out there that teach you how to customize windows 10? Security options, how to set up ssd, what settings to use for computer, etc.
 
what i am trying to tell you is that there are very few single updates. they are all package deals that come when MS feels like it. you don't get to sift through a bunch and chose what you want. you get them all at one time. and you do not get to turn any down. there is a place to block an update for a while but it will eventually install the next version of it when it is available.

i have been using win 10 now for a very long time and rarely see an update that causes issues. there have been a couple but they were mostly beta build which the public never sees. lots of misinformation and scaremongering going on with win 10 and most of it is just flat out wrong. you're gonna drive yourself nuts trying to control win 10 like you can the older os's. i am an old pro at customizing windows and tweaking it to my liking and am having trouble getting a lot of stuff to let me do what i want.

you can find a couple basic tweaks right now but anything major is still a ways away since people are still trying to figure out how to get windows to behave and submit to tweaking.
 


Haha, quality comedy right there 😀
 
insider program goes back a year before that. i have literally been using win 10 since the first beta build 2 years ago. the whole life of the os is good enough for me to call it "a long time". the "anniversary" update coming soon has been in beta now since january. it is a MAJOR change to how it looks, feels and works. with a ton of new features.
 

The problem is caused by a bug in windows update service causing windows update to check for updates indefinitely and not downloading any updates and slowing pc in the meantime the windows update causes the svchost.exe to use all the ram and cpu making it slow. You have to fix it manually, use this guide : http://abopc.blogspot.com/2016/05/windows-update-memory-leaksolved.html
Also you can download all updates till April in one package saving you from multiple restarts and effort.See this : http://abopc.blogspot.com/2016/06/ms-simple-updates-monthly-rollups.html
prefer mark as answer or upvote as this article is flled with many off the topic things.