Turn off Windows Update if you want to force-feed individual patches

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Good note from DC: I like you assumed that standalone KB updates should install without running any Windows Update checks however this doesn’t appear
[See the full post at: Turn off Windows Update if you want to force-feed individual patches]

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Elly

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Don’t forget to rub you tummy in an anti-clockwise direction while patting your head, hopping on one leg and barking like a dog.

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That’s I do since the begining and It work (on Vista SP2 at least). Ok it takes long times (Nearly 1h30) but it work

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I had this problem yesterday with the second update getting stuck as described – ended up doing a system restore.
Haven’t had a huge problem with long updates (beyond an hour?) so I might leave these two for now and see how the current batch of updates go.

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Sorry Woody, duplication actually starts from “If your Win7 system is suffering from the “frozen” Windows Update issue”

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I’m sorry but I can’t agree with having to be offline to install either of these two patches. I’ve manually installed these two remotely on 6 computers (so far) and I didn’t encounter any problems at all on any of them. I do agree with you on the first part though, it is important to kill the WU service first.

On all of the systems I updated remotely I changed the WU setting to never check for updates and rebooted them before installing the patches and both of the patches installed immediately requiring a restart after each of them.

After both patches were installed I then changed the WU setting back to check but don’t download & restarted them again and I was quite pleased to see the “Updates are available” bubble pop up within a few minutes.

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When I tried to install KB3145739 I got the endless ‘downloading’ message. Searching around for a solution someone mentioned changing your Windows Update setting to ‘Never check for updates (not recommended)’. When I did that it went in straight away. I guess this is a related solution to the one mentioned above?

Pleased to report that all the updates that Woody gave the green light to this week installed in 15 minutes.

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Thanks. I had a hard time formatting that copied email. Not sure why, but hope it’s better now.

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Useful workaround. I experienced some delay in the past while trying to install msu files, one minute or so. I never paid much attention as I don’t experience the huge delays that other people experience, likely because I am almost always patched up to date. I have always thought that the msu does a sort of certificate check up with Microsoft to validate the file but as I said earlier, I didn’t pay much attention, probably because I am not trying to run the msu files too often.
Thanks again DC and Woody for a useful trick.

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This allowed me to download both patches without using IE, since it will not open on my computer.

Thanks

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Standalone update refused to run until Windows Update was turned back on: seven hours until it finally asked if I really wanted to install KB3138612. Expecting a delay of seven hours until it asks about KB3145739, it probably would have been better just to have gone with Windows Update in the first place.

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Something’s not right. The standalone update runs by itself, without running Windows Update – if you have your internet connection disconnected.

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Agreed something isn’t (wasn’t?) right. Maybe I had turned off some service it wanted. Anyway updates went in eventually, installed the current updates per your instructions, set it to tell me about updates, and after restart I can actually use the machine. What a relief it is!

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The reason I suggested disabling the internet connection (in addition to stopping the Windows Update service) was that I had seen instances where the standalone installer initiated an internet connection by reactivating the Windows Update service. When both items are unavailable the install seems to start as expected.

I suspect that temporarily setting the Windows Update settings to “Never check for updates (not recommended)” may also achieve the same results. The critical thing is that the Windows Update service remains stopped and is thus unable to initiate an internet check with the MS Update servers.

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Woody… if disabling the internet connection is required how would you suggest manually installing these two patches remotely?

To add to my previous post above, I’ve updated two more systems remotely for a total of 8 now. I believe setting the WU settings to never check and restarting the computer before attempting to manually install either of these patches is the key. It’s important to restart the computer after changing the WU setting, if you don’t do that you’re wasting your time… and I think some folks are neglecting to do that restart.

I haven’t experienced a lag longer than 10-15 seconds on any of the eight systems I’ve manually installed these patches on remotely.

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That’s a great question – and I don’t have a clue. Does anybody else have any insight?

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Installing remotely like over the Internet or over LAN?
If installing over Internet, a better option may be to use Windows Update instead of updating manually.

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Woody, I know this may not pertain to the WU update, but still deals with Windows Update. I have tried to get the updates in before tuesday, I have it set to have me choose to download & install, yet when I go to, it gets to the downloading updates, but ‘appears’ to hang on 0kb 0% downloaded. Any idea how to fix it? I’ve tried a clean boot, still ‘appears’ to hang on 0kb 0% downloaded, even though some updates did download.

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Excellent question. I just submitted a VERY long article for InfoWorld that looks at problems people are having with updates and how to work around them.

I didn’t include this one in the article. But chances are good you need to delete everything that’s in the SoftwareDistribution folder.

Easiest way to do that is by running the Windows Update troubleshooter.

If that works, let me know and I’ll sneak it in when the edits come around.

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Nevermind, got it fixed. Who knew adware could target Windows Update, or appear to, since I quarantined the adware & right after ran Windows Update, & it worked right away.

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Alas it’s a coincidence. There’s no adware associated with Windows Update. (Unless you want to count “Get Windows 10” – which is a completely different kettle of fish!)

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i agree this works… i was getting the endless looking for updates message. as soon as i stopped the WU service and unplugged my internet, the suggested updates installed fine

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That’s not adware, that’s spamware. & like Gibbs from NCIS says, Rule 39: “There is no such thing as coincidence.” Had to pull that.

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I have the same problem ” it gets to the downloading updates, but ‘appears’ to hang on 0kb 0% downloaded” which started yesterday on two PC’s. This after Norton 360 finished a full scan finding no problems including adware.

Woody, we have a problem.

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Woody, in addition to my prior reply, and to make it more clear as to the size of the problem, my problem is with all of the current outstanding April updates having this “gets to the downloading updates, but hangs on 0kb 0% downloaded.” Now we are talking many updates to have to manual update even with a “good stable” method to do so.

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If you give it enough time, it will eventually finish. This is usual behaviour as counter-intuitive as it appears. One of those quirks of WU…

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Over the internet CH, but are you forgetting the reason anyone would choose to manually install these two patches in the first place?

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Ed, I didn’t forget your reasons, but manually means downloading on the local computer and installing from there, locally. And if you don’t have other feasible options, then what is left?

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Ed, just stop the Windows Update service and set it to Disabled before the installation. There is no need to disconnect from the Internet. The other possible option would be the set for Never Check for Updates while leaving the service in its Automatic (Delayed) state as it is the default.

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For clarification purposes I am not trying to find an alternative method, the one I used in post #5 above worked perfectly for me. For the record CH I downloaded the patches once onto my system and used file transfer to distribute them to all of the remote systems.

Apparently the update Gods were with me on this venture since apparently many others had issues that I never encountered. I just completed updating the last two systems earlier this evening and all ten of them are happily checking, downloading & installing Windows updates in a very short amount of time now.

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Sorry Ed, I missed your post at #5. I was only replying to your reply to #9. It is all clear now.

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The turn off Windows Update, Reboot and try stand alone install worked for me.  No need to disconnect Internet.

The gift that keeps on giving in 2017 …..

Cheers to all   🙂

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From https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/joscon/2009/07/15/addressing-some-comments-given-so-far/:

‘[Question] 2. Installing updates/small hotfixes is also slow because after double-clicking the MSU, it “searches” for quite a long time before applying the update.

[Answer] –I say: What is going on there is we’re checking the package to make sure its complete and pulling down any deltas that might be needed for the fix to your \SoftwareDistribution folder.  Deltas are smaller packages that might be needed for the update to work properly.’

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Elly, walker

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I have two hypotheses about this issue.

Hypothesis #1: One reason that standalone .MSU updates can sometimes take nontrivial time to process “Searching for updates on this computer” is because Windows Update can do only one thing at a time. If Windows Update is doing anything else, such as searching for updates (whether initiated manually or automatically), then “Searching for updates on this computer” seems to not even start processing until the previous Windows Update operation(s) are complete. This explains why Ed’s technique works: it ensures that no previous Windows Update operations are ongoing when installing the .MSU file. This also explains why stopping the Windows Update service beforehand works: stopping the Windows Update service cancels ongoing Windows Update operations.

Hypothesis #2: Another reason that standalone .MSU updates can sometimes take nontrivial time to process “Searching for updates on this computer” is because of inefficient algorithms that were the same cause of slow checks for updates in Windows 7. This was fixed in Windows 7 with updates KB3020369 and KB3172605.

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Elly, walker

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Testing has revealed that hypothesis #1 is likely correct.

My tests have not shown evidence supporting hypothesis #2. However, assuming that hypothesis #1 is correct, then having Windows 7 updates KB3020369 and KB3172605 installed can reduce the time Windows Update takes to search for updates, which in turn can reduce the time that a standalone .MSU update takes for “Searching for updates on this computer” processing for situations in which Windows Update was already searching for updates prior to running the .MSU and neither of the fixes in hypothesis #1 is used.

In my opinion, the best solution is Ed’s solution: “I believe setting the WU settings to never check and restarting the computer before attempting to manually install […] is the key. It’s important to restart the computer after changing the WU setting […].”

In my opinion, stopping the Windows Update service while Windows Update operations are ongoing should not be done due to the possibility that doing so could cause serious Windows Update issues.

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Elly, walker

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Mr.Brian:    As I mentioned, IMHO, your assessment, and hypothesis #1 is definitely supported by the information you have researched.  Excellent work, as always, Mr.Brian!

Thank you, as always, for your outstanding, amazing, help!   🙂  🙂

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MrBrian

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Can stopping the Windows Update service while an update is installing cause issues? Walker said that his Windows Update problems started when he stopped the Windows Update service. Also, I found a post from Arthur Li in this topic that Walker’s error number may be caused by stopping the Windows Update service:

“Generally, the Windows Update issue can be caused by one of the following factors:

1. The Windows Update service has been stopped.
2. Corrupted Windows Update Temporary folder.”

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walker

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Mr.Briain:   Yes, I vividly recall when I began having the nightmare problems with the error which prevented me from getting the updates.   The error code 8007038.   I never had any problems with this previously, before the Windows Update Service was stopped.

Since I do not have a “Windows Update Temporary folder”, that could not have been the problem.    Mr.Brian was able to solve that problem after working arduously, non-stop to correct it.    An amazing feat!  Thank you for all of the above messages you posted which are relevant to this issue.    Thank you once again, Mr.Brian!!   🙂  🙂

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MrBrian

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I found an answer from “Mark Phaedrus, Software Engineer, Windows Update Agent, Microsoft” at https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-manually-download-all-the-Windows-updates-from-Microsoft: “And yes, Louis mentioned a problem that you may encounter — since MSU files use Windows Update technology to install, if there’s already a scan in progress, the MSU install may appear to hang as well, since it ‘waits in line’ behind the scan. Believe it or not, yanking the Ethernet cord out of the wall may not actually solve this problem (though it may be cathartic). On machines experiencing the problem, the part of the scan that involves a connection to the Internet still takes only its normal time, usually only a few seconds. It’s the part after that — where Windows Update decides which of those updates are actually applicable — that can take hours and hours. Yanking the cord will prevent an online scan from starting, but won’t stop a scan that’s already in progress. So the best solution is to stop the local Windows Update service, then immediately run the MSU file. You can use Task Manager as Louis described to stop the service, or you can run the command NET STOP WUAUSERV. You may need to reboot the computer if the service just won’t stop.”

My hypothesis #1 is correct.

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jburk07, walker, satrow, woody

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