Windows 7 Checking For Updates stuck forever

THANK YOU !!  I did EXACTLY the same steps you did, i.e., FixIt processes, manual repairs, reinstalling 3 times... Installin IE11 did the trick... I suddenly had 253 updates ready to start with!!

Thanks...!

Hi Bryan

I have investigated this problem extensively and documented an extensive troubleshooting article on the issue on my blog here:

Windows 7 stuck on checking for updates

I hope this helps

Regards

Kriss

Is it the same computer as in this other recent post of yours?...

I hate Windows Live Mail in Windows 7.   First install of Windows 7 it worked great.

A year later, after Win 10 downloaded update?!!!!!!! failed 10 times, so I had to reinstall Win 7 and Windows Live Mail and now it hasn't worked right since... [SOURCE]

Have a Dell OptiPlex 740 and after days of trying every fix I could find on checking for updates hanging I saw this fix the first day but thought it was difficult and now wish I had done it.  It wasn't difficult I just downloaded the sub tool to the desktop and ran it.  The I copied and pasted the cmd into a notepad and saved it as reset cmd and ran it.  AND MY UPDATES WERE FIXED< HALLELUJAH!!!

Found it here for my original error of 0x8007005, but that was days ago. Thank you to the person who posted this.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/968003

To resolve the issue, make sure that you are logged on as an administrator, and then install the updates again. If the problem continues, use the SubInACL tool to repair file and registry permissions. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Download the SubInACL tool, and install it to the default path that is offered by the installer. The default path will be one of the following, depending on your version of Windows: 
   • %ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools (32-bit versions of Windows)
   • %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools (64-bit versions of Windows)
2. Start Notepad, and then copy and paste the following commands:

@echo off

    setlocal
     
    echo.
    echo Determine whether we are on an 32 or 64 bit machine
    echo.
     
    if "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%"=="x86" if "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432%"=="" goto x86
     
    set ProgramFilesPath=%ProgramFiles(x86)%
     
    goto startResetting
     
    :x86
     
    set ProgramFilesPath=%ProgramFiles%
     
    :startResetting
     
    echo.
     
    if exist "%ProgramFilesPath%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\subinacl.exe" goto filesExist
     
    echo ***ERROR*** - Could not find file %ProgramFilesPath%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\subinacl.exe. Double-check that SubInAcl is correctly installed and re-run this script.
    goto END
     
    :filesExist
     
    pushd "%ProgramFilesPath%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
     
    subinacl.exe /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f  /grant=system=f
    subinacl.exe /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f  /grant=system=f
    subinacl.exe /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f  /grant=system=f
    subinacl.exe /subdirectories %windir% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
     
    echo FINISHED.
    echo. 
    echo Press any key to exit . . .
    pause >NUL
     
    popd
     
    :END
     
    endlocal

3. Save the file as Reset.cmd.
4. Right-click the Reset.cmd file in File Explorer (in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8) or Windows Explorer (in Windows 7 and Windows Vista), and then click Run as administrator. In Windows XP, double-click the file in Windows Explorer.
5. Wait until the execution finishes, and then try to install the update again.

Note If you receive errors when you run SubInAcl, see the following Microsoft blog:

Notes about a couple of possible issues while using the SubInAcl tool.