How to update Vista quickly?

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Another Vista call-out, this time from reader AK: I’m an avid follower of ‘AskWoody’; so, here goes. The monthly MS Updates for 12th July 2016, has st
[See the full post at: How to update Vista quickly?]

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When it comes to Vista, none of the published WU/MU speedup tricks really works. And there is no way to know for how long svchost will spike cpu usage (and consume vast amounts of memory) while it searches for updates. It’s not unusual for the process to take several hours on Vista.

Even worse, until the latest batch of patches is installed, the badly behaved Vista WU/MU clients will go through this horrific ritual that makes a Vista system unusable for extended periods on a virtually daily basis.

The best you can do is to pick a time (like overnight) to manually run WU/MU where the resource hogging behavior won’t impact your productivity. The other option is to disable Windows Update to stop the resource hogging and then re-enable WU/MU at a time of your choosing.

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@AK;

Tried this yet?

wu.krelay.de/en

JF

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See https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/2700567

Scroll down to Vista, then “let me fix it myself”

I built the list of commands into a script, which worked for me though I had to break the download into 3 or 4 batches and re-run the script in between.

I’m guessing one or more of the downloads causes the problem which these commands then clear and the rest come in OK.

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Manually download & install the KB3168965 win32k.sys Vista security update from these MS download center links (be sure to reboot afterwards):

KB3168965 update 32bit-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53206

KB3168965 update 64bit-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53242

These Vista updates are only temporary fixes which will resolve the problem from July 12 to August 8 and may stop working on August 9 (the August patch Tuesday).

And still Microsoft has not yet developed an updated Windows Update Agent/Client app that will permanently resolve the problem on Vista.

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I had been waiting 2-3 hours for my Vista updates. This month was up to seven hours and counting before I stopped the update process by rebooting (wasn’t sure about which process to kill via task manager.)
Then I went to Microsoft’s monthly bulletin summary page at https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/ms16-jul
looked for the monthly update for windows kernel mode drivers; this month it is MS16-090.
Clicked on the link MS16-090 which brought up the bulletin.
Under “Affected Software” Vista is conveniently listed at the top and the left hand column contains links to the patch for manual installation for whichever 32b or 64b version you run.
Clicked and the download page for KB3168965 appeared. Downloaded and saved the file. Closed other apps just to be safe and ran the downloaded file. Installed without a hitch and my subsequent update checks take c. 5 minutes.
I usually wait until at least the day after the patches come out and then search online for the patch number to see if anyone has had problems, beginning, of course with this site.

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I tried to build a Vista system recently. I gave up on updates after days of nothing. I think Microsoft has already written-off Vista. You might try again after July 29. Or just make the switch to Linux.

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Seems like an excellent approach.

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Hi JF.
Tried the fixes.
Prompted that they were not right for my system.
AK
p.s You can only go with what pops up on your screen.

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Shouldn’t take any more than 15 hours (bogging down your computer) and it might not run any more often than every 24 hours.

Unless your computer is slow or short on ram, then it may take even longer.

On the plus side, if you’ve already installed your updates checking for updates will be fast…

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Got a bit bored, waiting for MS. Cribbing off my other Vista pc. I started to download & install the updates, manually (NOT RECOMMENDED). About 15/16th’s of the way through, MS decided to chime in with the last 2 updates. Installed, OK
RAN ‘CHECK FOR UPDATES’, ‘WINDOWS IS UP TO DATE’ ALL IS WELL: FOR JULY.
p.s Didn’t fancy the ‘REGISTRY FIX’ IAN.

Thanks to all. Hear from you all, again, next month ?

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By Jove, I think he’s got it!

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My experience with several Vista systems on which KB3168965 was installed indicate that it does not make a significant difference in WU/MU behavior when checking for updates.

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I tried installing KB3168965 and it will not install. I have had it with Vista and all-in-all with Microsoft. I have turned off updates completely on my Computer. Before the end of the year I will be purchasing an Apple.

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If users try Dalai’s workaround at http://wu.krelay.de/en/ and see a “not applicable to your computer” error when you run the standalone update package (.msu file) for a Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32K.sys) update listed on that webpage, then it’s possible the update was already installed during a previous Windows Update – see the MS support article at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3057448. You only have to install the Win32K.sys updates from Dalai’s list that are missing from your system, using the x86 links for 32-bit Vista and the x64 links for 64-bit Vista.

The step-by-step instructions posted 16-Jun-2016 in m#l’s thread at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-update/updates-not-working-it-has-been-searching-for/92cd6922-17f6-4730-b46b-91a480b95dd3 are based on Dalai’s workaround at http://wu.krelay.de/en/ but include tips on how to install these standalone update packages (.msu files). Several Vista users, including myself, have found this workaround decreases the “Checking for updates…” hang from several hours to under 30 min.

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@Imacri;

Super roundup of effective speed up steps.

Thanks,

JF

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Thanks, but all credit goes to Dalai, the original author of the workaround at http://wu.krelay.de/en/, as well as Woody and his loyal readers who posted most of the tips and tricks for installing standalone update packages (.msu files). I’ve been plagued by these “Checking for updates…” hangs since my Aug 2015 Patch Tuesday (shortly after Win 10 was officially released on 29-Jul-2015) and just thought it would be helpful to other Vista users if I compiled everything I’ve learned to date in one place.

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Perhaps it’s just me and my little knowledge as to how Computer Programs work, but none of the advise given worked for me. None of the KB’s would download and nothing got any faster.

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You’re trying to scan for updates from Vista?

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This is a public domain point and click environment that runs scripts for all the updates. wsusofflineupdate worked for me on every computer, except for one with a corrupt partition table.

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Hi Woody:

The GOOD news: The workaround on Dalai’s webpage at http://wu.krelay.de/en/ continues to speed up Windows Update update for most Vista SP2 users trying to install their September 2016 Patch Tuesday updates. Manually installing the new KB3185911 update decreases the “Checking for updates…” hang down to about 20 min (instead of 8 or more hours) for Vista SP2 users who were fully patched in August 2016.

The BAD news: Many Vista SP2 users are reporting that they can no longer download the .msu standalone update packages from the Microsoft Download Center with their IE9 browser. Clicking the red “Download” button in EI9 takes the user directly to the “Thank you for downloading” confirmation page but users never see the prompt to Run/Save the installer. The installers can be downloaded with Firefox and Chrome so the issue appears to be specific to IE9.

When I browse to the download page for KB3185911 for 32-bit Vista (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53714) on my Vista machine everything works fine with my default Firefox v48.0.2 browser. When I switch to IE9 I can’t download the .msu file, the “Site Feedback” buttons are non-functional and I can’t pause that annoying ad banner for the Surface Pro 4 and Dell XPS that takes up half the download page.

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IE is a piece of %$#@!

Tell them to use Firefox or Chrome!

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Google hasn’t supported Chrome for XP or Vista since April 2016, and IE9 doesn’t support newer protocols for secure (https) connections like TLS 1.2, so I always recommend Mozilla Firefox as the safer choice for Vista SP2 users.

I wonder if Microsoft even knows (or cares) that IE9 users are having problems downloading .msu installers from the Microsoft Download Center. This feels like another nail in the coffin for Vista SP2 (death by neglect) even though extended support for this OS doesn’t end until 11-Apr-2017.

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try OPERA, works nice and light and you can keep IE9 if you want it sometimes

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Opera is based on the same open-source version of Chromium used by Google Chrome, and the Opera system requirements at https://www.opera.com/download/requirements/ recommend that users have Win 7 or higher. The Feb 2016 Opera blog at https://www.opera.com/blogs/desktop/2016/02/initial-opera-developer-37-release/ notes that Opera 36 was the last fully supported release for XP and Vista. From that blog entry:

“While Opera 36 will be last one with features additions on Windows XP and Vista, we are still going to provide security and crash fixes to XP and Vista platform. You will no not be able to run Opera 37+ on Windows XP and Vista, we advise you update to more recent OS, if possible.”

I’ve heard good things about Opera but I think it’s only a matter of time before Opera discontinues all support for XP and Vista. Also, my antivirus doesn’t support the Opera browser so I’ll likely be sticking with Firefox as long as I have my Vista SP2 machine.

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The best way to update Vista is to find a cheap Windows 7 64-bit Pro or Ultimate and install it on top.
Get rid of Vista now if you can.

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Hi, I couldn’t get Vista to update on two laptops until I found http://www.wsusoffline.net/ which is software to download all the updates/ service packs from Microsoft to your pc, then install all the updates your system needs, offline. It also does win 7 and 8. Vista is listed under legacy products.

I don’t use windows update anymore, I just run wsus offline to keep up to date.

Hope this helps.

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Hi Ed:

Thanks for your hint about the Legacy Products tab. I’ve looked at the WSUS Offline site before and never saw Vista listed as a supported OS on any of the images on their website, and couldn’t find any official documentation regarding system requirements. Good to know there’s an alternate workaround for Vista SP2 users having trouble with Dalai’s workaround at http://wu.krelay.de/en/.

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