Windows Update just spins and spins, seemingly without end

Will Windows Update continue to "work fine" (i.e., without having to download/install updates manually)? I guess you'll find out soon enough.!

Hi slipfoot,

Further to PA Bear's comment, there is a growing body of evidence that an update to the Windows Update Agent (WUA) v7.6.7600.256 at C:\Windows\system32\wuaueng.dll could permanently fix this problem. The Windows Update Agent for Vista has not been updated by Microsoft since June 2012.

Win XP had a similar problem after Win 8.1 was released where the Windows Update Agent, running under svchost.exe, would lock machines with single core CPUs with 100% CPU consumption.  Microsoft eventually acknowledged the problem and released a fix for Win XP - see Woody Leonhard's November 2013 article *Microsoft to fix Windows XP update SVCHOST redline issue 'soon*'.  My post # 162 in ScousaJAY's VistaForums thread windows update just seems to hang while checking includes comments about supersedence chains and problems I observe in my Windows Update log on Patch Tuesdays when the Windows Update Agent tries to search for available updates.

Even Dalai'a workaround at http://wu.krelay.de/en/ that I referenced in my step-by-step instructions posted 16-Jun-2016 in m#l's thread *Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours* notes that "The term 'solution' might be a little bit exaggerated, since the following HowToonly tries to make sure that the Update Agent doesn't need to check all updates, so the check for new updates is done faster. Futhermore, it's only atemporary solution; most likely the issue will appear again with the next Patchday."

Windows 7 users are also affected by these slow Windows Updates, and Microsoft released a patch for the Win 7 Windows Update Agentin June 2016 that was supposed to fix the problem for that OS. The optional Win 7 June 2016 rollup of non-security updates KB3161608 bundled six separate hotfixes, including KB3161647 (Windows Update Client for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: June 2016) that added "An optimization that addresses long scan time for updates". Unfortunately, other hotfixes bundled in June's KB3161608 rollup (and its July 2016 replacement KB3172605) introduced multiple bugs related to memory leaks, bad TLS connections, Bluetooth driver conflicts, etc. for some Win 7 machines. From Woody Leonhard's 22-Jul-2016 Woody on Windows InfoWorld blog entry Microsoft yanks buggy speed-up patch KB 3161608, replaces it with KB 3172605 and 3172614:

"I don't know about you, but I'm getting very sick of Microsoft's repeated bungling in this Windows 7 Update debacle. If the company put one-thousandth the effort into fixing Win7 Update as it has into enticing users to install Windows 10, the problem would've been fixed months ago. One billion machines running two or four or six hours a month, doing nothing. At this point, I suggest you just ignore Microsoft and use the method described by an astute German blogger named Dalai. He has a description of theJuly fix to the Windows Update woes forWindows 7 and Vista."

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v48.0 * NIS v22.7.0.76 * MBAM Premium v2.2.1

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

I recommended replacing Norton Antivirus Online because you're no longer a CenturyLink subscriber so the Norton application is not receiving any program updates.

Will Windows Update continue to "work fine" (i.e., without having to download/install updates manually)? I guess you'll find out soon enough.

OK, I'm done beating this dead horse. Good luck!

If there's nothing wrong with Norton Antivirus Online, why did you tell me to replace it? And why, despite Norton Antivirus Online not being replaced, does Windows Update now work fine?

I didn't say there was anything "wrong" with Norton Antivirus Online. [1]

You don't know if replacing it would have resolved your problems because you didn't do so.

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[1] The fact that you obtained the application from an ISP in the USA (i.e., CenturyLink) and the fact that you're no longer a CenturyLink subscriber - since you now reside in Thailand - may be a violation of the EULA (license) you accepted when you installed it:

<QP>

Norton^™^ AntiVirus Online: With these services, customer receives the right to use the products on the specified number of PCs during customer's subscription term with CenturyLink...

</QP>

Source: http://www.centurylink.com/common/disclaimers/general.html#high_speed_internet_basics

Don't you get it? There's nothing wrong with Norton Antivirus Online, and replacing it would not have solved the problem of not being able to download Windows updates.