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Today I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Home Premium x64 SP1. For some reason, it will just not update. I try to run Windows Update but all it does is hangs at "Checking for updates". I even let it sit there for 4 hours and it didn't do anything.

I looked for multiple solutions and none of them worked. I've reset windows update, I've done sfc /scannow, I've done the dism.exe command, I installed "Windows6.1-KB947821-v34-x64", but nothing seems to fix it.

I downloaded a windows diagnostic tool for windows update, and it did come up with an error that which it failed to fix: "0x800f08".

I don't know what to do at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Donavon
  • 291

2 Answers2

26

Fix

Microsoft released a Windows Update Client Update which is part of the July 2016 Update Rollup to fix the long hang at Windows Update scan.

This update contains some improvements to Windows Update Client in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1). This includes the following:

  • An optimization that addresses long scan time for updates that's reported on some computers.

  1. Download:

  2. Stop Windows Update service. This speeds up the setup of MSU updates. This can be done from the command line, or from the service manager window.

  3. Try the downloaded update and see if it speeds up the installation of Updates.

To be able to install the update you first need to install the April 2015 servicing stack update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 update (again, stop WU service before trying to install the MSU).

Download (April 2015 servicing stack update):

32 Bit

64 Bit

Workaround 1

If this is still not helping to search for new updates, use WSUSOffline to get all the updates.

Community
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magicandre1981
  • 99,606
18

I've seen it take 8+ hours to finally figure them all out and install the first round.

It'll eat all your RAM, and then starts swapping to disk like mad, which can make it take even longer. So if you have like 2GB (or less) of RAM and a slow HDD, the issue will be compounded.

Install this update first, and try again.

Windows Update Client for Windows 7: June 2015

This update addresses an issue in which system performance can be decreased during scans. This issue has the greatest effect on computers that have a small amount of physical memory.

Win7 has known issues now that the update catalogue is so huge (the above fix is supposed to help address that).

Otherwise, let it sit trying overnight and see if it's advanced come morning. Note: Be sure to set your power settings to make sure the system doesn't go into sleep mode.

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
  • 113,841