wuaudt.exe is really bogging down my computer

Anonymous
2010-08-03T18:57:06+00:00

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?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2010-08-22T19:22:13+00:00

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
2010-08-20T19:29:09+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2014-08-28T17:03:44+00:00

    It is 2014, and the wuaudt.exe still runs in the background and bogs down the computer.  Is this fix ?simply a requirement to upgrade OS?  I would like a fix asap for XP.  I still run this on one of my PC's required for work.

    Thanks.  F. Chapman <PII Removed>

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-16T04:30:22+00:00

    I found that to be true also, but it did not start until I downloaded the security suite from microsoft! It seems to fight everything else on my computer for all my memory! I had to take it off and it finally is running somewhat normal!

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-14T19:50:11+00:00

    Here's an article from last month about what's happening to XP computers.  And MS hasn't fixed it yet because it's still occurring - I saw that first hand yesterday when mine hosed up while updating MSE: http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/microsoft-fix-windows-xp-update-svchost-redline-issue-soon-230940

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