listing IDs of missing updates takes 50 minutes!

[Gerby]

Hi!

I just checked a fresh Win XP installation in a VM (Intel i7-3520M @ 2.9 GHz, 512 MB RAM, WOU r529, repository updated yesterday).

I can confirm that without any pretreatments the "Listing ids of missing updates" phase takes ages (canceled after 45 Minutes). This applies to IE6 (vanilla installation) and also to IE8 (installed first, before starting WOU).

If you install the the Cumulative security update for Internet Explorer (KB2888505), reboot, and run WOU afterwards, the listing phase takes only about 2 minutes. This applies to IE6 as well as IE8.

So, although the Windows XP support will last for only a few more months, IMO it would make sense to implement a workaround.

Greetings
Gerby

[Edit]
P.S.: Sorry for any repetions of previous posts' contents. Testing took some time, and there seems to be much going on about this right now.
[/Edit]

[WSUSUpdateAdmin]

http://trac.wsusoffline.net/browser/trunk (r531).
GT

[Gerby]

Hi!

I've tested the fix for all three IEs (6 to 8). Works just fine. (Almost) No more waiting time, anymore. Thanks for the implementation, Torsten.

Gerby

[nlewis]

I just tried it with r533 myself, and it only took a few seconds. Very nice!

[WSUSUpdateAdmin]

Thanks for feedback!

[tree1891]

I have same issue in v8.8.
update on xp sp3 in vmware

[aker]

Please use the newest trunk.
http://trac.wsusoffline.net/changeset/5 ... format=zip
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=43#p140

[harry]

Please install one of the KB2898785 files from .\client\wxp\enu in advance (depending on the IE version installed).
Reboot, then run UpdateInstaller.

This change is already built into the latest trunk: arrow: http://trac.wsusoffline.net/browser/trunk (R542)
(for using trunks please see viewtopic.php?f=7&t=43 or viewtopic.php?f=3&t=374 )

[nlewis]

If you're curious as to the cause of this phenomenon, and why the solution works, take a look at the following Ars Technica article:

Exponential algorithm making Windows XP miserable could be fixed
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/12/exponential-algorithm-making-windows-xp-miserable-could-be-fixed/

[Denniss]

Strange this article lacks instructions to fix this behaviour - manually install the latest IE cumulative Update.
Also strange it makes no indication about the other affected Software - Windows Server 2003 (32Bit only).

M$ probably wouldn't bother to fix XP but with 2k3 affected they may get a lot of customer complaints.