• Windows 8.1 update scans slow down for Flash updates?

    Posted on July 17, 2016 at 17:39 CDT by • Comment in the Forums

    I can’t replicate the experience, but here’s an observation from JA:

    This doesn’t seem logical to me, and I’ve seen nothing about it on your website, but my experience over the past couple of months is this:  my Windows 8.1 update scans become very slow when the FLASH update is on the list of available patches, and go back to normal when I get it off the list by installing it.

    In May it was taking about a half hour for each update scan to finish, and then, after I installed the day’s Windows Defender definition, Windows Update would keep running for another half hour, using half of the CPU capacity. On May 30 (when you changed the DefCon level) I installed all the May security patches, including Flash, and speed went back to normal- but I had no way of knowing what patch made the difference.   But, in June, MS released the Flash update separately, two days after patch Tuesday.  My update scans continued to be fast and trouble-free right through patch Tuesday (I installed none at that time, except Windows Defender definitions), but on Thursday, coincident with the June Flash patch appearing on the list, it was back to a half hour for each scan. So, after a day or two of that,  I thought that if the scans slowed down with the  arrival of the Flash update, maybe if I got it off the update list the problem would go away-  so I went ahead and installed the Flash update. To my surprise it worked- update speed went back to normal.   I installed the rest of the June security patches on July 1, no problem. All was well until July patch Tuesday.   It took about 80 minutes for the July update list to appear, including the Flash update. Then, after a day or two of slow update scans, I installed the July Flash patch. (Nothing else, except Windows Defender definitions.)  Just like last month, the slow update scan problem went away.  For what it’s worth, that’s been my experience.

    I noticed  in the “installed updates” list that since February the Flash updates have no KB number in the title, as they did previously.  If you click on one the KB number appears, but otherwise it’s hidden. A search of “installed updates” for any of the recent Flash KB numbers brings up nothing, since the KB numbers aren’t there. I wonder if this change could have anything to do with messing up the update scans.

    Anybody out there see something like that?

    Windows Patches/Security
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