When Windows Update screws up badly

Bry89

About half an hour ago, I received new updates from Windows Update where the major one was just a time zone change (for somewhere in Russia) and the other three were optional: one of them being a rollup for the .NET Framework. Now, upon installing them all as per usual, something unusual yet very frustrating occurred: one of them completely broke Firefox and Internet Explorer where none of them would load up at all. The change was then reverted by a simple use of System Restore and after that, I reinstalled the time zone update but refuse to do the same for the rest, as one of them caused that mishap and I don't know which one.

Has anybody else received these updates? And if you do and installed them, have you had the same problem I experienced? I hope it's not just me

jamie1130

I've not gotten these updates yet. What version of Windows are you running?

BlueSun

I don't install optional updates anymore. Not since the Windows 10 adware they pushed out.

I did, however, have issues just getting Windows updates installed at all on my Windows 7 desktop. I tried numerous things to resolve, but it just refused to install any updates (stuck at checking for updates, downloads stuck at 0%). The solution wound up being to use the WSUS offline tool to install the updates.

Bry89

jamie1130 wrote:

I've not gotten these updates yet. What version of Windows are you running?

Windows 7. Maybe I should've mentioned that initially.

BlueSun wrote:

I did, however, have issues just getting Windows updates installed at all on my Windows 7 desktop. I tried numerous things to resolve, but it just refused to install any updates (stuck at checking for updates, downloads stuck at 0%). The solution wound up being to use the WSUS offline tool to install the updates.

Oh yeah, I remember this so well. Thank god that was fixed for good.

Kurtisdede

BlueSun wrote:

I don't install optional updates anymore. Not since the Windows 10 adware they pushed out.

I did, however, have issues just getting Windows updates installed at all on my Windows 7 desktop. I tried numerous things to resolve, but it just refused to install any updates (stuck at checking for updates, downloads stuck at 0%). The solution wound up being to use the WSUS offline tool to install the updates.

Same happened to me, when I downgraded to Windows 7. I used WSUS and downloaded a fix-windows-update thing from Microsoft's website. Then it worked lol (wsus wasn't needed actually) normally i just click windows update button and everything installs, but this time I needed to get my drivers manually
This didn't happen before I upgraded to Win10, then downgraded.
Sucks that Windows 7 will be ending supports 4 years later. Won't use Windows 10, no matter what. It's like a virus that Microsoft is trying to spread to everyone.

BlueSun

Unfortunately, Windows 7 is really starting to feel old at this point. It's kind of getting to the point XP was about 5 years ago or so. It's still fully functional, but it's starting to just feel a little dated and some things, like Windows Updates, aren't working quite as well as they did when it was new.

Bry89

Kurtisdede wrote:

Sucks that Windows 7 will be ending supports 4 years later. Won't use Windows 10, no matter what. It's like a virus that Microsoft is trying to spread to everyone.

Same here. Chances are I'll be either be switching to OS X or Linux pretty soon but for now, I have this pressure on my mind on what to go for (and nearer the time, I'll probably make a thread about that).

garirry

I have this OCD habit of always wanting all my devices to be up to date.

Naturally, the result is that I suffer. Badly. One day, maybe we'll have computers that just work.

Bry89

garirry wrote:

I have this OCD habit of always wanting all my devices to be up to date.

Haha, I'm the same also, and I may think everyone else is too. One optional update that I do regret installing was an update for my sound driver that I got April last year, and that caused the inability to record audio. To be honest, I wasn't bothered by that later on.

Kurtisdede

Bry89 wrote:

Kurtisdede wrote:

Sucks that Windows 7 will be ending supports 4 years later. Won't use Windows 10, no matter what. It's like a virus that Microsoft is trying to spread to everyone.

Same here. Chances are I'll be either be switching to OS X or Linux pretty soon but for now, I have this pressure on my mind on what to go for (and nearer the time, I'll probably make a thread about that).

That's what I was thinking of doing as well. For the OCD thing, I don't care about the newest and the greatest. Rocking a i3 third gen, 4GB ddr3 ram and ati radeon hd4600. Don't need to replace it, it does what I need it to do.

epguy7

BlueSun wrote:

Unfortunately, Windows 7 is really starting to feel old at this point. It's kind of getting to the point XP was about 5 years ago or so. It's still fully functional, but it's starting to just feel a little dated and some things, like Windows Updates, aren't working quite as well as they did when it was new.

The Windows Update feature DOES work like new on Windows 7 IF you install the KB3172605 update (which supersedes the KB3161608 update from June 2016). KB3172605 and KB3161608 include an updated Windows Update Agent/Client app from KB3161647, which fixes the "checking for updates being stuck" problem.

Seems like some people have not heard or installed the KB3172605 update for Windows7 SP1 - my Windows Update troubles have gone away after installing KB3172605 a few months ago.

Here are the links to the KB3172605 update for Windows 7 SP1 [this update was re-released on September 12, 2016:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53335 (32bit download)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53332 (64bit download)

pcgeek

Yeah, Win7 update screws up alot. in my case, on a newer PC (Celeron g1820, MSI h81m-p33 mobo), it takes 50% of the CPU in svchost.exe. Couldn't find the culprit for a long time, but the I used Process Hacker 2 and found windows update lingering and eating up the CPU. I disabled windows update and rebooted the PC. Fixed.