Windows 7 update install time taking a very long time

Be patient.  I routinely reinstall Windows 7 for my clients (they screwed it up somehow, viruses, defective drive, or the Windows 10 'infection').  I noticed this throttling back of Windows 7 Update servers in December 2015 (other said they noticed it in Sept/Oct 2015).

You are doing everything right (power, don't go to sleep, etc.).  I would hard wire it too as it is possible the wifi goes to sleep.

It usually takes between 6-8 hr before the list appears.  It doesn't matter what type of link you have or the CPU/RAM you have.  The slowness it all Microsoft's fault.  They want to discourage you from anything but Windows 10.

Don't give in to them.  Stay away from Win10 and its spying (telemetry, data collection, usage info - it is all the same, they are spying on you).

Updates....

be careful which updates you do select.  Set it to manual and look at the list I uploaded earlier.  There are about 30 (and growing) updates you should NOT install.  You should hide them, but still set it to manual, never automatic, or you will get Win10 shoved onto your PC.

Recommendations:

• look at Mac
• look at Linux (specifically Mint), they have downloadable ISO that create bootable media.  You can leave you current installation as is, but play and learn Linux.  Those distros have everything you want and need (Firefox, PDF reader, zip utilities, Libre Office, etc.)
• spread the word about Windows 10 and what Microsoft is going.  It is amazing that the media is not all over this in N.America.  In Europe, it is well known and people are staying away.

Agreed. Installing Win 7 64-bit on a brand new harddrive is fast (ish) but the minute I run Windows update to get all the 200+ files it takes FOREVER (sobfar at 3 hours) for them to even populate in the win update window. I turn power options to performance and set everything to never so nothing in the machine sleeps and then walk by maybe 4 hours later and hit install then go to bed. Most finish by morning but it didnt used to be this sslow. I work in IT also and used to be able to setup a computer from scratch, fully updated in an 8-hour windiw tops...now it takes two days.  I have fast 100Mbit internet too. Its got worse and worse....not sure why..

Ug

I have tinkered with computer fixes for many years. Recently, I had a problem with an update on my Windows 7 Pro Toshiba laptop and ended up recovering from an older backup of Windows 7 Pro (64) on my laptop because I was thinking something was wrong with the machine due to the slowness of updates. . That image was older, so I knew that I would be waiting on updates. Little did I realize that MS had throttled their update servers, apparently in a push for Windows 10 as described in this thread. Maybe if I knew that it was their problem and not mine, I could have avoided the hassle, and just waited in the long eLine with everyone else. Hard to imagine that everyone and their brothers are doing these updates and overloading the servers...

I was surprised to learn of this thread this evening!

Towards the end one tech suggested starting the W10 upgrade which (may) free up the update bottleneck, then cancel it prematurely before W1`0 is installed. There is a suggestion to create a batch file too. That is daunting to me. My IT Pro son has expressed his frustrations with Windows too, and we had a brief discussion on Linux alternatives when I saw him recently.

Anyway, I wonder. Since my laptop has been be running forever tonight on 158 updates (even though I have a 127 mb download speed!?) my power consumption will be higher than if it ran like I used to be able to. Might there be a class action suit against MS? This can not be considered a "green" policy. How much energy is being wasted by hundreds of thousands (or more) people who have to keep their computers running to get the updates? Shouldn't MS be held responsible for unnecessary power consumption? Maybe I should send them my electric bill!!!  LOL  It has not ever been this slow for me over the years when I did re-installs on friends' PCs. Maybe the cost of the wait is being passed along to clients as well?

One suggestion in that thread would be for someone to have some super patch that would allow for a third party update? Yeah, not MS certified, and maybe some copyright violation, but what other choices are out there? This is not a line for food at a market in Moscow in the 80's.

Maybe I do not want Windows 10. Maybe I have to figure out Linux A, or Linux B...

Gee what do I need to run my favorite Windows programs in Ubuntu??? Perhaps gaming in the cloud is a better choice. MS, Take a seat. Wait for it... wait for it...

I will reach out to my nephew who worked at MS and discuss it with him sometime soon.

Oh, I just looked and it has been running awhile and the 0% is now has reached 99% complete. (after 5 hours) Maybe the next round of updates will be quicker? I will wait and check for more updates after this batch installs (hopefully successfully!) We will see.

This situation for IT mgrs is disgusting. Pushing the 'updates' doesn't work well either.

Another IT mgr of 25+ years and frankly MS has failed miserably in their "support" of Windows 7 (8 was/is

a fiasco)... I have absolutely NO trust in MS now and doubt it will ever be reinstated. Sad that they

started with 'customer support' as one of the benchmarks... now it seems like "customer oppression"...