August 2015 Windows Update for Vista Requires One Hour to Run to Completion

Further to my post of 16-May-2016, I can now confirm that the workaround posted on Dalai's webpage Search for Windows Updates takes forever? - A possible solution at http://wu.krelay.de/en/ solved my "Checking for updates..." hang.  I pre-installed the Win32K.sys update KB3161664 (MS16-073: Description of the security update for kernel mode drivers: June 14, 2016) before running a manual Windows update to install my June 2016 Patch Tuesday updates today, and "Checking for updates..." ran to completion in 20 min (compared with 5 - 6 hours for my Apr 2016 and May 2016 Patch Tuesday updates).  My entire Windows Update session finished in about 40 min.  Here's what the CPU consumption looked like for my June 2016 Patch Tuesday Windows Update with KB3161664 pre-installed, with:

• "Checking for updates..." running for 20 min between the 60 and 40 min marks
• Download and installation of 10 important updates between the 40 and 20 min marks (this month's Malicious Software Removal Tool scan ran for the last 8 mins of the installation phase)
• Re-boot to finish installation (dark grey band) around the 15 min mark

KB3161664 was the only Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32k.sys) update missing on my system from Dalai's list of recommended updates since my Vista SP2 system was fully patched as of May 2016.  If you have a Win 7 SP1 or Vista SP2 OS that has not been updated for several months or have difficulty following Dalai's instructions at http://wu.krelay.de/en/ I've posted step-by-step instructions in m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours that should be easier to follow.  As of June 2016 there are currently five Win32k.sys updates listed on Dalai's webpage [KB3078601 (18-Aug-2015); KB3087039 (08-Sep-2015); KB3109094 (07-Dec-2015); KB3145739 (12-Apr-2016); KB3161664 (14-Jun-2016)] that must be pre-installed before you run Windows Update if any are missing on your system.

These "Checking for updates..." hangs on Patch Tuesdays are clearly a widespread problem for many Win 7 SP1 and Vista SP2, and the hangs on my system started in Aug 2015, the month after Windows 10 was officially released on 29-Jul-2015.  Microsoft has shown no interest in fixing the problem [e.g., releasing an update for Vista's Windows Update Agent v7.6.7600.256 (wuaueng.dll) that was last updated in June 2012] so I'll continue monitoring Dalai's webpage each month to see if a new Win32K.sys update is added to his list of recommended updates before I run any future Patch Tuesday updates.

As OP of this thread I apparently can't mark one of my own posts as the possible solution, but I now consider this thread as Solved.  

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v47.0 * IE9 * NIS v21.7.0.11

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Just reporting that I saw no change when I tried to install this month's September 2015 Patch Tuesday updates for Vista. I ran a manual Windows Update on 10-Sep-2015 and got stuck at Checking for updates... for 40 min before WU reported that 1 recommended and 14 important updates were available for download. The entire update process, including downloads and installs, took just over one hour.

Here's what the CPU consumption looked like for my 10-Sep-2015 Windows Update, with:

• "Checking for updates..." running for 40 min between the 73 and 33 min marks (with svchost.exe saturating one of my cores and constantly consuming 50% of CPU between 60 and 33 min marks)
• Downloads, installs and monthly Malicious Software Removal scan between 33 and 13 min marks
• Re-boot to finish installation (dark grey band) at 8 min mark

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 40.0.3 * IE9 * NIS 2014 v. 21.7.0.11

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

On Monday, August 17th, I changed my settings to automatic updates (no idea why I did this) and it took a very long time, finally locking up my system. I couldn't do anything, so unplugged the cpu. (bad idea).

Then when I tried to reboot, I didn't get past the login, but got a black screen and a message that (WINDOWS CALENDATD HAS STOPPED".

I had an APPCRASH, here's the problem signature. I posted this on the Windows forum and since so few people use Vista now, I haven't gotten any help. I can get on the net using the path at the bottom. Also I have looked in Task Manager and it looks like I lost most of the processes that reside in my computer, although it shows them all in Other User. (although there is no other user) Wonder if I can copy and paste these...?

I really need some help. I only know enough to be dangerous. Everything I have done has only made things worse. For instance I reverted to the default boot and now my drives and usb are not recognized...HELP!!

Problem signature:

  Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

  Application Name: WinCal.exe

  Application Version: 6.0.6002.18005

  Application Timestamp: 49e01e83

  Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll

  Fault Module Version: 6.0.6002.19454

  Fault Module Timestamp: 55ae6e00

  Exception Code: c0000022

  Exception Offset: 00009f55

  OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3

  Locale ID: 4105

  Additional Information 1: 9d13

  Additional Information 2: 1abee00edb3fc1158f9ad6f44f0f6be8

  Additional Information 3: 9d13

  Additional Information 4: 1abee00edb3fc1158f9ad6f44f0f6be8

Read our privacy statement:

  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0x0409

As of 12 hours ago the problem seems to have been resolved and appears all along to have been an MS server issue.

I must have spent 20 to 30 hours trying to resolve this issue.

Please see,

Update problem 1

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/6fb3ec9c-4567-4506-94f8-7a176ef19709/connecting-to-a-new-router-has-seemingly-caused-a-problem-with-scvhostexe-and-windows-update?forum=itprovistasetup

Please see my post from August 12th

Update problem 2

https://community.bt.com/t5/Other-Broadband-Discussions/Strange-HH3-problems-becoming-more-frequent/td-p/1514010/page/2

And this,

Update problem 3

http://forum.sysinternals.com/new-to-sysinternals-need-to-troubleshoot-100cpu\_topic31564.html