Can't update Windows 7 installs

It could be had for $29 after discounts last I checked and if you spend money on one thing, that's the one thing that will save you time and frustration more than anything else
It's not some new, third rate program.

It is the oldest, most developed imaging program on the market.

I certainly agree that spending a little extra money up front on a good tool will save you time and money in the long run. Does it dynamically resize partitions when the target disk is smaller than the source disk?

It can do things of that nature more so than any other imaging program, there is a whole community that discusses things like that over there.
And developers answer emails quickly.
They are not some new kid on the block, they are older than any other imaging company.

Unbelievably, on more than one occasion I asked for a feature, and it was included in the next version of the program (!).
Pretty much jaw-dropping customer service.

Latest version of Windows Update MiniTool : http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_update_minitool.html

Having IE 11 installed helps, at least with my fresh installs.

I currently have W7 Pro SP1 x64 freshly installed and completely updated through a functioning Windows Update. Going to bed now (4:30 AM). LOL

There's also WHDownloader (formerly winhdows hotfix downloader): http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_hotfix_downloader.html
The latest version of wsus offline has a new wsusscn2.cab file.

Kenrou said:

Latest version of Windows Update MiniTool : http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_update_minitool.html

Click to expand...

I don't see where this tool fixes the broken Windows Udater. It just gives you more options for controlling what goes on your computer if you ever do find any updates.

I just found this http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-slow-updates-fix-final.html today and thought it might be helpful.

trents said:

I don't see where this tool fixes the broken Windows Udater. It just gives you more options for controlling what goes on your computer if you ever do find any updates.

Click to expand...

It doesn't fix, it replaces, in the words of Daft Punk "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". Doubt anything will fix the updater at this point if M$ is really in the market of making our lives hard. Since it works in some Win7 and not others i would assume there's a particular update that breaks the bank, "simple" matter of finding and removing it.

Alaric said:

I just found this http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-slow-updates-fix-final.html today and thought it might be helpful.

Click to expand...

Reading this at the same time as typing this post teaches me to read 1st, type later. Awesome work there

I used the mini update tool to give me a list as a screenshot (after I canceled the first working update it would not download again= thought maybe windows update would work-gave me the circle jerk). I then used that list to download exactly the kb's using whdownloader which works perfectly btw, no hesitation at all. Then I just installed each one individually with a few reboots in between. It worked perfectly and makes the wait time of windows update much less but a little more tedious. MS is definitely scrooing the pooch with their bs 'use ten or else' policy. No doubt about that. The problems with ten itself are a testament to that fact.
If only I could pass the list to wh automatically.

Well, guess Windows Update is still just as broken as it was in August.

The OS install on one of my PC's decided to hose up yesterday, so I had to reinstall. For some reason the video card driver kept crashing repeatedly (not even while running a 3D benchmark or game, just sitting at the desktop or browsing the web), uninstalled the driver with display driver uninstaller and reinstalled the same driver(didn't help),installed an older version of the driver (didn't help), reseated the card in the PCI Express slot 2-3x (didn't help), moved it to a different PCI E x16 slot and it stopped crashing, then moved it back to the original slot and it was still working normally. Then, after getting the video card issue resolved, the Network/LAN/Ethernet port stopped working (but only in the OS). It would light up the power/connectivity light, but wouldn't light up the Link/Activity light in the OS, but in the BIOS and during the POST process both lights were illuminated (indicating to me that the port was working normally, right up until the OS loaded).

Well, after a reinstall from a disc of Windows 7 with SP1 on it, not surprisingly the updater didn't work. Had to install all of the same updates I installed manually on two or three other systems. Now it's sort-of working. Got an icon in the notification tray telling me that new updates are available, which when clicked on took me to the Windows Update dialog box and it asked me to check for updates, after waiting on it to finish for an hour I gave up and restarted the PC. Now trying again for the second time for it to actually find these updates so that I can hopefully install them.

I fear for what I will have to do if or when I have to reinstall Windows 7 on my main PC. I probably will at some point, mainly because Windows Media Player is unable to find/see many of my media files. I've even manually input the file locations to its library, but it still can't find some of my songs, or any of my video files. But oddly, if I find one of the (non-locateable) files and manually tell it to play in WMP it plays just fine, and even telling it to add the file to the library while it is playing or in the playlist doesn't work. Really odd because my previous PC (which I copied the files from) is able to find and play all of these files without any issues.

Tech Tweaker said:

Well, guess Windows Update is still just as broken as it was in August.

The OS install on one of my PC's decided to hose up yesterday, so I had to reinstall. For some reason the video card driver kept crashing repeatedly (not even while running a 3D benchmark or game, just sitting at the desktop or browsing the web), reinstalled the driver (didn't help), reseated the card in the PCI Express slot 2-3x (didn't help), moved it to a different PCI E x16 slot and it stopped crashing, then moved it back to the original slot and it was still working normally. Then, after getting the video card issue resolved, the Network/LAN/Ethernet port stopped working (but only in the OS). It would light up the power/connectivity light, but wouldn't light up the Link/Activity light in the OS, but in the BIOS and during the POST process both lights were illuminated (indicating to me that the port was working normally, right up until the OS loaded).

Well, after a reinstall from a disc of Windows 7 with SP1 on it, not surprisingly the updater didn't work. Had to install all of the same updates I installed manually on two or three other systems. Now it's sort-of working. Got an icon in the notification tray telling me that new updates are available, which when clicked on took me to the Windows Update dialog box and it asked me to check for updates, after waiting on it to finish for an hour I gave up and restarted the PC. Now trying again for the second time for it to actually find these updates so that I can hopefully install them.

I fear for what I will have to do if or when I have to reinstall Windows 7 on my main PC. I probably will at some point, mainly because Windows Media Player is unable to find/see many of my media files. I've even manually input the file locations to its library, but it still can't find some of my songs, or any of my video files. But oddly, if I find one of the (non-locateable) files and manually tell it to play in WMP it plays just fine, and even telling it to add the file to the library while it is playing or in the playlist doesn't work. Really odd because my previous PC (which I copied the files from) is able to find and play all of these files without any issues.

Click to expand...

Check the new information in the other thread from this section dealing with building a slipstreamed Windows 7 installer that fixes Windows Updater. New material there also adds a section on how to fix the broken updater on an in place installation. Sounds like part of your problem was not a broken Windows Update but buggy drivers included in the updates.

trents said:

Check the new information in the other thread from this section dealing with building a slipstreamed Windows 7 installer that fixes Windows Updater. New material there also adds a section on how to fix the broken updater on an in place installation. Sounds like part of your problem was not a broken Windows Update but buggy drivers included in the updates.

Click to expand...

The driver problem wasn't part of a fresh install though.

I loaded this drive 3-4 months ago, and it only started having problems yesterday. I loaded the driver for the video manually myself from my own folder full of nvidia driver files (I keep a lot of those on file, I am a computer tech after all, so it's handy to keep a lot of different driver versions on hand for different cards/architectures in different systems).

If your problem is system specific, then someone else can jump in with suggestions.

But we have figured out how to fix Windows 7.
You have a choice of fresh installing Windows 7 all the way to September of 2016. Of course not every update specific to your system will be included but it will reduce the update process by hours.
Or a choice to just fix Windows Update.

Which do you want.

Its doing this to me now on a laptop I just fixed I had to replace a cracked monitor and a hard drive and install a recovery of windows 7 but it's an old recovery disc my friend created and it didn't have SP1, I downloaded the updates all the way to SP1 and now it won't find anything I've done and tried every work around I could find and it still wouldn't bring up any results I'm stuck because it's not good enough for Win 10 and the key for the OS is to a non SP1 Home Version so I don't know what to do???

Do you want to start fresh?
Get all personal files off the laptop. Factory reset the laptop.
If you don't know how post model and someone may find it in the manual for you.

Then download SP1. Post if you don't know where.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15090/windows-7-install-service-pack-1-sp1

Then do this:

FOR ALREADY INSTALLED WINDOWS 7 on which Windows 7 Update is broken:

....However, we can now freely say, based on tests, that if you did not update Windows 7 since April 2015, your Windows 7 Update is very likely very broken.
You need four things to fix it:

• April 2015 servicing stack update for Windows 7 file
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3020369

• April 2016 Windows 7 SP1 Convenience Rollup update file

• May 2016 update rollup
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3156417

• July 2016 update rollup file (which includes June 2016 updates).
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3172605



April 2016 Windows 7 SP1 Convenience Rollup update file can only be downloaded using Microsoft Internet Explorer and no other browser from
http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=3125574

[You need to install the Microsoft Update Catalog Add-on to be able to Add the downloads to download "basket"...]
You need either a 32-Bit file or a 64-Bit file.
32-Bit Update for Windows 7 (KB3125574) 5/16/2016 316.0 MB
or
64-Bit Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB3125574) 5/16/2016 476.9 MB

AngelfireUk83 said:

Its doing this to me now on a laptop I just fixed I had to replace a cracked monitor and a hard drive and install a recovery of windows 7 but it's an old recovery disc my friend created and it didn't have SP1, I downloaded the updates all the way to SP1 and now it won't find anything I've done and tried every work around I could find and it still wouldn't bring up any results I'm stuck because it's not good enough for Win 10 and the key for the OS is to a non SP1 Home Version so I don't know what to do???

Click to expand...

Welome to the "Windows Updater Broken and I'm Frustrated" club. Please refer to the post in this section entitled, "How to make a Windows 7 SP1 Convenience Rollup ISO with all updates up to 2016." We have fixes for this now as c6 outlined in his reply to you. Yes, the Updater became broken the first time with SP1. There also seems to have been updates after that which broke it all over again. We are working on a "sticky" incorporating these fixes. Towards the end of the thread I reference there is a zipped attachment which has a draft of the instructions to fix the updater. It should do what you need.

I fixed the W7 updater on an already installed version by downloading WSUS Offline. I ran the downloader, then the installer. I had to run them a couple times but ended up with a fixed, updating, W7 install. It can be had here http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/wsus_offline_update.html However, it doesn't seem to work universally.

Alaric said:

I fixed the W7 updater on an already installed version by downloading WSUS Offline. I ran the downloader, then the installer. I had to run them a couple times but ended up with a fixed, updating, W7 install. It can be had here http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/wsus_offline_update.html

Click to expand...

I think that's old news but apparently it doesn't work on all systems. TechWizzard said it didn't work for him.