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

Anonymous
2015-08-18T14:12:50+00:00

Is Microsoft throttling bandwidth for users running Windows Update on Vista machines to give a higher priority to Win 10 users?

I've run multiple Windows Updates since Patch Tuesday on 11-Aug-2015 and couldn't get them to run to completion on my 32-bit Vista machine until 16-Aug-2015.  There were no errors - it just reported that it was checking for updates and never finished, even if I let it run for over an hour.  Process Explorer showed svchost.exe constantly consuming ~50% of my CPU (i.e., complete saturation of one of my Intel Duo cores) and that a thread for the Windows Update service (wuauserv) was responsible for all that CPU activity.

I assumed that my Windows Update service was corrupted but after reading posts by other Vista users having the same problem (see ScousaJay's post *Windows Update Just Seems to Hang While Checking* in the Windows VistaForums for one example) I tried a manual update again on 16-Aug-2015.  Windows Update finally ran to completion and offered 17 important updates and one optional update for Silverlight but it took approx. 35 min before it reported that updates were available and the entire process, including the downloads, installs and monthly Malicious Software Removal scan, took almost a full hour.  A typical Patch Tuesday normally takes about 10 min on my machine from start to finish.

Here's what the CPU consumption looked like for my successful Windows Update of 16-Aug-2015, with the "Checking for updates..." phase running between the 70 and 35 min marks and re-start to complete the installation around the 15 min mark.

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox 40.0.2 * IE9 * NIS 2014 v. 21.7.0.11

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

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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

47 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2017-02-22T13:55:54+00:00

    You're welcome. :)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2017-02-22T12:13:03+00:00

    wow thank you so much it seems to have worked, a couple failed according to the list but after doing the first four updates found 215 updates and my pc environment looks more like it should so thank you again, nice to see some one trying to help instead of putting pointless comments that are no help at all.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2017-02-21T15:08:02+00:00

    Bear, I have no problem with support finishing.

    What I do have a problem with is MS leaving the product in a basically unusable state (for the average user). That can not be right, either ethically or commercially. People paid real money for this product, don't ever forget that.

    How much more respect would MS have gained if they had fixed this issue and perhaps even had an 'update' to flash up a screen telling users why support was finishing (because its old and not capable of keeping pace with developments) and that users who continue to use Vista may of course do so as long as they wish, however they have to accept that they will find it performs ever more poorly as developments overtake it and consequently it will also expose the users to greater security risks.

    Spell it out, but DONT BREAK THE PRODUCT DELIBERATELY.

    Which is what they have done.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2017-02-21T14:03:10+00:00

    Set Automatic Updates to "Never check for Updates" and reboot. Install applicable ones from here:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-update/why-has-vista-stopped-automatic-updates/42c98c78-157b-44b7-858a-3ba92933cb90

    Regards, VZ

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2017-02-21T11:34:10+00:00

    Well so far i spoke to help thing on MS website they asked personal details including phone then asked me for $79.99(smells of a scam) i said no not willing to pay it and then he left chat, i reinstalled vista sp2, i had update running for over 10 hours nothing and still running windows standalone installer doesnt seem to work either it just hangs or does it take a while, should i just keep waiting. I also had a chat with another on MS and he seemed only interested in my spending money on windows 10, one thing why would i make a transaction on a vista that isnt secure because it wont update, MS are just scammers after cash, think i might try linux os.

    ps ahat happened to the april deadline they clearly lied

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments