Problems with updating W7

On 13/10/2016 14:24, Z. wrote:
Fokke Nauta wrote:
Hi all,

Recently added a SSD to my wife's pc and decided to install W7 (pro 64b)
from scratch, as it wasn't always running properly.
Now W7 needs updating. I left her pc on for more than 24 hours but still
searching for updates. Nothing downloaded yet. I can't even install
Autoroute as it needs an update as hotfix. I know there is an issue with
these W7 updates but is there a way to speed things up? Or do I need to
leave this pc on for a month or so, all the time looking for updates?

Fokke

Wait and don't start and restart. Mine took 12 hours. I am waiting again
for the Office updates. So far, three hours. Linux is looking better and
better.


I especially like Q4OS. It looks like Windows. And indeed Linux is
getting better all the time.

Paul wrote:
Dominique wrote:
sctvguy1 écrivait :

On Thu, 13 Oct 2016 08:59:53 -0400, Paul wrote:


In Internet Explorer, you can visit links like this, to get security
updates. 369 is the April 2015 Servicing Stack. 605 is a Cumulative
that
includes a Windows Update fix. Use Internet Explorer, *not* another
browser.
Paul,
I am using IE 8 in Vista, and my mother-in-law uses IE 11 on her W7
machine. Both machines take forever. I cannot even get the "updated
patches" that will speed up the updates! I have found that using
Firefox on Microsoft sites will work when you want to download
individual
patches.




A few weeks ago I did a clean install of Vista on an old laptop, after
installing SP1 and SP2 (I already had the files), Windows update
didn't work. After many searches and trials and errors, the only thing
that worked was WSUS Offline Updates.

http://download.wsusoffline.net/

It downloaded a lot of stuff (I think it's the whole Vista updates
catalog). Once the "generating" program completed, I ran the "update
installer" program (It's located in the same folder than the updates).
It scanned the computer, installed required updates rebooting
automatically when necessary. It took some time.

After that, Windows Updates started to work correctly.

HTH

That will certainly fix it.

Actually, there's a problem with that. I started the
Update Client thing, and it's stuck "Listing IDs of missing updates".
So wsusoffline is in as much trouble as Windows Update. I don't
recollect having this much trouble with the other
OSes on this.

So far, 30 minutes and no response.

It's not looking good. It might require
MBSA 2.3 and installing all the updates one
at a time from the Catalog server :-(

If I had to reinstall Vista SP2 at a computer
store, I'd be wanting a *slipstreamed* disc
for this. One where all the updates were already
added. It would not be a pleasant project making one.
And every time Patch Tuesday comes along, it's
back to that "eight hour delay thing".

Back in the WinXP era, the delay each month would
double. If it was a 5 minute delay in February,
it would be 10 minutes in March, 20 minutes in
April and so on. After enough years pass, the
delay can be quite large. The pattern on later
OSes, is much worse.

Paul

sctvguy1 wrote:
On Thu, 13 Oct 2016 08:59:53 -0400, Paul wrote:


In Internet Explorer, you can visit links like this, to get security
updates. 369 is the April 2015 Servicing Stack. 605 is a Cumulative that
includes a Windows Update fix. Use Internet Explorer, *not* another
browser.

Paul,
I am using IE 8 in Vista, and my mother-in-law uses IE 11 on her W7
machine. Both machines take forever. I cannot even get the "updated
patches" that will speed up the updates! I have found that using Firefox
on Microsoft sites will work when you want to download individual patches.

It took me long enough, but I finally got
all the patches into the thing.

I decided since I'd used WSUSOffline and run it
to load up on updates, I'd try and leverage the
folder full of updates.

It turns out, they're CAB files (not MSU).

Initially, I thought CABs could be done with DISM.
Vista doesn't have DISM. I happened to have the WAIK
DVD for Vista and installed it. And DISM for Vista
claimed it was not capable of doing "online" packages.
Only offline ones. I wasn't interested in cavorting off
into any deep water like that.

Using MBSA 2.3, I managed to make a list of the
remaining 141 security updates I hadn't installed
at that moment. I pulled all those CABs out of the
WSUSOffline folder (since WSUSOffline calls the same
Windows Update service as Windows Update does, and
it was getting stuck). To install the CABs, you can
use pkgmgr for Vista.

The CABs need to be expanded first, making a folder.
That is "cabtmp" in this example. In the script I
copied, the pkgmgr call is missing /quiet /norestart.
You really need those. I ended up clicking "No"
141 times, because I didn't add that to the script.
The other thing the script is missing, is a progress
counter, doing an echo to the screen of how many
updates it has done. So the following is a barely
functional CAB installer for Vista. You really really
want the pkgmgr call to be

pkgmgr /ip /m:cabtmp /quiet /norestart

as you can then walk away while it runs.

****************** poor_persons_Windows_Update.bat *******

@echo off
setlocal

mkdir cabtmp

For %%i In (*.cab) Do (

expand "%%i" -f:* cabtmp && Echo Log %Time:~0,-3%^^ "%%i" expansion - OK || Echo Log %Time:~0,-3%^^ "%%i" expansion - FAIL

Echo - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Echo Installing %%i%. Please wait.

pkgmgr /ip /m:cabtmp && Echo Log %Time:~0,-3%^^ "%%i" installation - OK || Echo Log %Time:~0,-3%^^ "%%i" installation - FAIL

del /f /s /q cabtmp

)

rd /s /q cabtmp

Echo - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Echo Operation completed

****************** poor_persons_Windows_Update.bat *******

Now, one thing wrong with the pkgmgr, is it
does not update Windows Update history. None
of the 141 updates are listed in the history.
You can find other evidence they're installed
though, so they are not totally invisible. MBSA 2.3,
when run after the reboot, could detect all security
updates were now done.

I tried one patch from the same constellation as
the http://wu.krelay.de/en/ article for Vista.
That one didn't help. I did spot an update going
in during the 141 updates that would have been
a candidate too.

So in all of this, MBSA 2.3 helped a lot. It's the
only tool that consistently performed, except that
occasionally it will locate an update that is "Not
Applicable". But as for acquiring the updates,
if you use the Catalog server, the process is
manual. If you use WSUSOffline, it automatically
gets more updates than apply to your OS, but the
format is CAB, and using pkgmgr to install them
isn't all that good. Pkgmgr is a bit on the slow side
(most of an update is overhead, not actual file
installing actions). But not updating Windows Update
status, I don't get that part. It makes it a bit
difficult to review the patch state later, if all
those updates are missing in the History.

Paul

The service stack update ran okay; however, it report that it had
already been applied.

The Convenience and monthly rollups would not run. They would error.
That is because I normally do *not* allow BITS (Background Intelligent
Transfer Service) and WU (Windows Update) services to run. I have them
disabled. These updates demand they be enabled (probably just the WU
service to do the updating).

Alas, when I ran the rollups, they would puke out a message about
"scanning for updates". This is NOT the standalone installer using its
manifest to check for dependencies, supercedes, or applicability. This
is the WU client doing its stupid online check for updates. After 16
hours for the Convenience update, I killed it. I tried a monthly rollup
and it, too, wanted to do a scan for updates rather than perform the
update supposedly in the standalone installer. To keep these installers
from trying to do a complete scan for updates (which means checking the
online catalog against my current config) which is super slow, I
disabled my network. Without access to the network hence no access to
the Internet hence no access to Microsoft WSUS server, the installer
decided to skip the update scan and go ahead with its installation.

So when applying the supposedly standalone updates, make sure the WU
service is enabled and to disconnect from the network on the host where
you run the rollups.

VanguardLH wrote:
The service stack update ran okay; however, it report that it had
already been applied.

The Convenience and monthly rollups would not run. They would error.
That is because I normally do *not* allow BITS (Background Intelligent
Transfer Service) and WU (Windows Update) services to run. I have them
disabled. These updates demand they be enabled (probably just the WU
service to do the updating).

Alas, when I ran the rollups, they would puke out a message about
"scanning for updates". This is NOT the standalone installer using its
manifest to check for dependencies, supercedes, or applicability. This
is the WU client doing its stupid online check for updates. After 16
hours for the Convenience update, I killed it. I tried a monthly rollup
and it, too, wanted to do a scan for updates rather than perform the
update supposedly in the standalone installer. To keep these installers
from trying to do a complete scan for updates (which means checking the
online catalog against my current config) which is super slow, I
disabled my network. Without access to the network hence no access to
the Internet hence no access to Microsoft WSUS server, the installer
decided to skip the update scan and go ahead with its installation.

So when applying the supposedly standalone updates, make sure the WU
service is enabled and to disconnect from the network on the host where
you run the rollups.

I noticed something weird as well, when using WsusOffline
in some recent tests. The damn thing is consulting WU
and going off into the weeds (when you do a Client Update).
Which makes using WsusOffline a "very Online experience".

Using your idea, maybe the PC will have to be unplugged from
the network after this, when using a WsusOffline USB Stick.
At that point in time, it's not running an MSU installer
either, it seems to be a discrete call to WU.

The WsusOffline, at least for Vista, is full of CAB
files, and unlike other OSes, this means using
pkgmgr from the command line to run them. Every OS
has its nuances.

If you take apart an MSU patch with 7ZIP, you can
see a package file inside WSUSSCAN.cab . (This is
the most modern MSU in the Vista collection.)

https://s10.postimg.org/jrgdwvrvt/msu_package.gif

The package.xml file seems to list prerequisites but
I don't see anything there to work out which patch
supersedes another. The only evidence of which KB
this came from, is near the very end.

http://pastebin.com/VZaBmmxR

Paul

On 19/10/2016 07:22, Paul wrote:
VanguardLH wrote:
The service stack update ran okay; however, it report that it had
already been applied.

The Convenience and monthly rollups would not run. They would error.
That is because I normally do *not* allow BITS (Background Intelligent
Transfer Service) and WU (Windows Update) services to run. I have them
disabled. These updates demand they be enabled (probably just the WU
service to do the updating).

Alas, when I ran the rollups, they would puke out a message about
"scanning for updates". This is NOT the standalone installer using its
manifest to check for dependencies, supercedes, or applicability. This
is the WU client doing its stupid online check for updates. After 16
hours for the Convenience update, I killed it. I tried a monthly rollup
and it, too, wanted to do a scan for updates rather than perform the
update supposedly in the standalone installer. To keep these installers
from trying to do a complete scan for updates (which means checking the
online catalog against my current config) which is super slow, I
disabled my network. Without access to the network hence no access to
the Internet hence no access to Microsoft WSUS server, the installer
decided to skip the update scan and go ahead with its installation.

So when applying the supposedly standalone updates, make sure the WU
service is enabled and to disconnect from the network on the host where
you run the rollups.

I noticed something weird as well, when using WsusOffline
in some recent tests. The damn thing is consulting WU
and going off into the weeds (when you do a Client Update).
Which makes using WsusOffline a "very Online experience".

Using your idea, maybe the PC will have to be unplugged from
the network after this, when using a WsusOffline USB Stick.
At that point in time, it's not running an MSU installer
either, it seems to be a discrete call to WU.

The WsusOffline, at least for Vista, is full of CAB
files, and unlike other OSes, this means using
pkgmgr from the command line to run them. Every OS
has its nuances.

If you take apart an MSU patch with 7ZIP, you can
see a package file inside WSUSSCAN.cab . (This is
the most modern MSU in the Vista collection.)

https://s10.postimg.org/jrgdwvrvt/msu_package.gif

The package.xml file seems to list prerequisites but
I don't see anything there to work out which patch
supersedes another. The only evidence of which KB
this came from, is near the very end.

http://pastebin.com/VZaBmmxR

Paul

I tried the suggestions where Paul and VanguardLH came with. Neither did
work. Now I'm trying Dominique's solution
(http://download.wsusoffline.net/).
This finally seems to work. At least it had downloaded the lot of files
and now I'm running the installer. Looks like it's working.

Fokke

"Dominique" wrote in message
...

Fokke Nauta écrivait news:e6996aF9e2uU1
@mid.individual.net:

Hi all,

Recently added a SSD to my wife's pc and decided to install W7 (pro 64b)
from scratch, as it wasn't always running properly.
Now W7 needs updating. I left her pc on for more than 24 hours but still
searching for updates. Nothing downloaded yet. I can't even install
Autoroute as it needs an update as hotfix. I know there is an issue with
these W7 updates but is there a way to speed things up? Or do I need to
leave this pc on for a month or so, all the time looking for updates?

Fokke

The solution Paul gave you has worked for me. On one machine "KB3172605"
alone worked and on another I needed both "KB3020396" and "KB3172605".

HTH

This works to fix Win7 update problems:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971058

Bob S.