Windows Update Hangs

I don't think that can be correct. We've left one Win7 system running as is and Resource Monitor shows the wuauserv service pegged at 98% see the screenshot:

Cheers, Mitch

You are just going to have to trust me.  I have done WU on 5 systems today alone.  Task Manager never showed more than 25 to 50% in any case.  If you are at 98%, there is a lot more going on in your computer than WU.

I have seen CPU go to 100% in instances where someone started WU, "stopped it", then restarted it.

I do believe your system CPU is clearly at 98%, but I am confident there is a lot more than WU being processed.

Well I do daily check ups everyday and let my computer do it on its own. I only do updates once a month from now on but instead of putting it to "never" i just switch the dates around so it will never get around to actually updating them on that exact day (tedious... i know... since putting it on never should be better) 

Actually its odd because my fan started only running high after I had that glitch on windows update. What's weird is the fact that when I went to "services" on my control panel and stopped windows update, the fan would ALWAYS stop running. But as soon as I start it back up, the fans would be running again. It stopped finally when I finally was able to download the newest updates and installed them on my computer after rebooting. So I know it had something to do with the windows update. My fan usually runs a bit higher whenever it is installing updates or checking updates. 

But it's a good thing my fan stopped and it's running normally  now. I just hate the fact windows update are getting slower and slower as years goes on. I remember back then it would only take 5-10 minutes just to check AND install them. Now it takes 20-30 minutes just to install certain updates...which is why I just stopped doing daily updates.

I read somewhere the process bar doesn't actually tell you the exact percentage of where it's at. It just says 0% for many people and it just suddenly hits 100% an hour later or so.  So perhaps just waiting would be best even if it may seem like it's not doing anything because it may actually be in the background. That's what I did last night and it worked after an hour of passing by.

Why is this happening?  Is there any other way to get these updates.  I have restarted the OS to no benefit.

Honestly, there's nothing much we can do. They purposely do this to force users to update to Windows 10.