wuaudt.exe is really bogging down my computer

Anonymous

Recently, when I first start my computer for the day, wuaudt.exe runs and really bogs down my computer. In Task Manager it shows it is using a lot of memory along with one of the many svchost.exe's that are running. I had my computer set up to notify me when updates are available. I have investigated this problem and found about the only thing to do is disable automatic updates altogether. I have turned off Automatic Updates, unchecked Automatic Updates under the Services tab in msconfig and in services.msc I have set Automatic Updates to manual. This seems to keep wuaudt.exe from running. I read in one place that Microsoft issues updates on the first and third Tuesday's of each month so I plan on doing manual updates at those times. Does anyone know why wuaudt.exe is suddenly such a memory hog? It only seems to be a problem the first time I time turn my computer on (I turn it off when not in use to save electricity). If I shut it off and restart it later in the day, there is not a performance problem. I have a Dell Dimension 5100C, Windows XP Pro SP3, 512 MB RAM, Pentium 4 3.00 Ghz processor.

I would like to be able to be notified of critical updates when they are issued but I don't want wuaudt.exe running every day if it is going to bog me down. Any ideas?

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Anonymous

Thanks for the info! I've opted out of Microsoft Updates as you and PA Bear have suggested. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything works normally tomorrow!

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Anonymous

Update: Due primarily to exchanges with several MS MVPS on the behalf of users like you, Microsoft is aware of and has acknowledged the issue:

"We have gotten reports from multiple sources and consider this to be a live service issue and we are investigating it as a Priority 1."

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear) ~ MS MVP (IE, Mail, Security, Windows & Update Services) since 2002 ~ Disclaimer: MS MVPs neither represent nor work for Microsoft

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163 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-08-17T17:50:14+00:00
After my initial optimism that deleting the DataStore folder had cured the problem, it's returned. I've resorted to turning off Automatic Updates.

@seeking_answers: If you need assistance, please begin a new thread aboutyour specific problem and computer(s). State your IE version and full Windows version (e.g., WinXP SP3; WinXP 64-bit SP2; Vista SP1; Vista 64-bit SP2; Win7; Win7 64-bit) in your first post. Thank you.

========================

How do I reset Windows Update components?

=> Ignore the APPLIES TO section if Win7; Access KB971058 via Internet Explorer (32-bit) only; Run the Fix It in DEFAULT and then AGGRESSIVE modes then reboot [1]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

[1] Full Disclosure: Running the Fix It in AGGRESSIVE mode will delete your Update History but not the list of installed updates in Add/Remove Programs (WinXP) or Installed Updates (Vista & Win7). * * * ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear) ~ MS MVP (IE, Mail, Security, Windows & Update Services) since 2002 ~ Disclaimer: MS MVPs neither represent nor work for Microsoft
Yeah thanks, but I wrote that before you issued the same instruction last time! See postsAugust 13, 2010 8:48 PM (me) and August 13, 2010 11:39 PM (you).

Anyhow, I'm of the opinion that it's more confusing to keep track of multiple threads about the same issue as opposed to keeping all the knowledge related to the issue in one thread, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.
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Anonymous

2010-08-17T17:25:09+00:00
After my initial optimism that deleting the DataStore folder had cured the problem, it's returned. I've resorted to turning off Automatic Updates.

@seeking_answers: If you need assistance, please begin a new thread aboutyour specific problem and computer(s). State your IE version and full Windows version (e.g., WinXP SP3; WinXP 64-bit SP2; Vista SP1; Vista 64-bit SP2; Win7; Win7 64-bit) in your first post. Thank you.

========================

How do I reset Windows Update components?

=> Ignore the APPLIES TO section if Win7; Access KB971058 via Internet Explorer (32-bit) only; Run the Fix It in DEFAULT and then AGGRESSIVE modes then reboot [1]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058
```
[1] Full Disclosure: Running the Fix It in AGGRESSIVE mode will delete your Update History but not the list of installed updates in Add/Remove Programs (WinXP) or Installed Updates (Vista & Win7).

* * *

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear) ~ MS MVP (IE, Mail, Security, Windows & Update Services) since 2002 ~ Disclaimer: MS MVPs neither represent nor work for Microsoft
```
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Anonymous

2010-08-17T16:07:54+00:00

I run Windows XP Pro SP3. My AV program is Avira AntiVir 10. If Avira is updated at the same time when those processes run, the update fails.

After my initial optimism that deleting the DataStore folder had cured the problem, it's returned. I've resorted to turning off Automatic Updates.

QED: Did you configure Avira not to monitor the DataStore folder ? I've found the latest version of Avira to be very memory intensive and very slow to load on older XP systems. The latest version of Avast is much more copacetic with older XP systems. It even has an option to load after all other services have loaded first.

The fastest way to determine if the CPU useage issue is being caused by the updating components or by installed software is to configure XP to Clean boot, ensure the native XP firewall is now On, then do a check for updates by clicking Start > Run > type wuauclt /detectnow into the Open: field, click OK or press Enter.

MowGreen Update Services - Consumer Security
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