Windows Update just spins and spins, seemingly without end

COMMENT: Extended Support (and updates) for Vista SP2 ends on 11 April 2017 (i.e., roughly five months from now).

Using Dalai's workarounds for the past few months, I was able to get Windows Updates working again, and it was fine until last month. Now it just spins and spins again. It hasn't been able to finish searching for updates for a week, nor has it been able to download updates since Oct. 19. I've installed the most recent files listed for Vista 32-bit on Dalai's page -- KB3198234, KB3194371, KB3203859 -- but it hasn't helped. ...

...I installed KB3197655, but Windows Update still won't complete.

Hi slipfoot:

Just an FYI that I'm updating my step-by-step instructions on page 1 of m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours after each Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of the month).

If you've confirmed that all the Windows kernel-mode driver (Win32K.sys) updates listed in STEP # 2 of those instructions are installed on your computer (STEP # 3), make sure you terminate any Windows Update sessions that might be running in the background [Windows Update | Change settings | Important updates | Never check for updates (not recommended) and re-boot - the re-boot is important].  Then run a manual Windows Update [Windows Update | Check for updates] and be prepared to wait - most Vista SP2 users found that the October 2016 and November 2016 updates were very slow compared to previous months.  A few Vista SP2 users who were missing two or three months worth of updates reported that it took around 9 hours for Windows Update to run to completion this month, so you might want to just let your manual Windows Update run overnight and see if "Checking for updates..." every manages to finish its search for available updates.

October 2016 was the first month that Microsoft started delivering one large Monthly Rollup for the MS .NET Framework for Vista SP2 and newer operating systems (see the MS blog entry Introducing the .NET Framework Monthly Rollup) and the installers for these monthly rollups are close to 100 MB in size.  If you have a .NET Framework installed on your computer and your last Windows Update ran to completion on 19-Oct-2016 then you should already have the October 2016 rollup installed (mine was KB3188744: Description of the Security and Quality Rollup for the .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 2, 4.5.2, and 4.6 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008: October 11, 2016).  There was no .NET Framework rollup released for Vista SP2 in November 2016, but if you haven't received the October 2016 rollup yet don't be alarmed if the download phase of Windows Update takes longer than usual.

I still haven't been able to confirm VolumeZ's claim that this month's IE9 update KB3197655 (Security update for Internet Explorer: November 8, 2016) will significantly speed up the November 2016 updates, but you've already manually installed that update so no harm done - the worst case scenario is that you spent an extra 5 or 10 minutes manually installing an important update for IE9 that should be installed by Windows Update anyway.

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v50.0 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * MBAM v2.2.1

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

I installed KB3197655, but Windows Update still won't complete.

Hi. Using Dalai's workarounds for the past few months, I was able to get Windows Updates working again, and it was fine until last month. Now it just spins and spins again. It hasn't been able to finish searching for updates for a week, nor has it been able to download updates since Oct. 19. I've installed the most recent files listed for Vista 32-bit on Dalai's page -- KB3198234, KB3194371, KB3203859 -- but it hasn't helped. Have Windows updates for Vista users been discontinued?