A couple of questions on WSUS Offline and Windows Update

A couple of questions on WSUS Offline and Windows Update

Postby tobymeister » 01.01.2017, 17:25

Hi Dalai, Happy New Year!
I've been updating my PC by following your posts at "http://wu.krelay.de/en/". Instead of me checking there every month, would it be more efficient for me to use WSUS? I haven't tried it before, but I think I could learn how to use it.

Another question for you: If one of the updates at your "http://wu.krelay.de/en/" post fixes the Windows Update Agent, how does it get broken again a month later?

One of the KB updates in your September post (not sure which one) fixed my Windows Update (Vista x64) problem when I installed it in October. But, lately, Windows Update is back to its old sluggish self - taking hours, days and sometimes never, to search for and install updates. I don't understand how the Update Agent can work one day and it's broken a month or two later.

Thanks.
Toby
tobymeister
 

Re: A couple of questions on WSUS Offline and Windows Update

Postby Dalai » 01.01.2017, 18:49

Just a note: I moved your post into a new thread because it has nothing to do with the other topic.

tobymeister wrote:Hi Dalai, Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you too!

Instead of me checking there every month, would it be more efficient for me to use WSUS?

Yes, I think so. But keep in mind that WSUS Offline needs a couple of days before all scan prerequisites are updated, though this only applies to Vista; there have been no changes for Win7 and 8.1 since October 2016. Without these prerequisites WSUS Offline is as slow as Windows Update because it uses the same mechanism/interface.

I haven't tried it before, but I think I could learn how to use it.

It's easy to use. UpdateGenerator downloads the updates and UpdateInstaller installs them. The "more advanced" stuff like excluding updates is explained in the FAQ and the forum.

Another question for you: If one of the updates at your "http://wu.krelay.de/en/" post fixes the Windows Update Agent, how does it get broken again a month later?

Windows Update breaks again only on Vista every Patch Tuesday. Why? MS releases new updates every month and adds them to the Update Catalog. The updates must be processed by the Windows Update Agent to check for missing ones. It has a hard time doing so because it's still the same one since 2011 and probably ineffiecient as hell (unlike the latest ones for Win7 and 8.1). Without going too much into detail, there are supersedence chains in the whole update "tree" structure, so it's a lot to calculate for this "old granny" :mrgreen:.

If you have Vista, you can check the VistaX64 forum thread I linked to on my site; it's an active thread where people post the new "speedup patches" every Patch Tuesday (or a day or two later).

Regards
Dalai
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Re: A couple of questions on WSUS Offline and Windows Update

Postby tobymeister » 06.01.2017, 14:14

Dalai,
I don't know if this is the proper forum or thread for this, but I have another question for you if you don't mind.

I downloaded and installed the Windows Vista x64 updates from your website (http://wu.krelay.de/en/). They installed fine and I ran Windows Update > Check for Updates. After an all night search, it found 25 updates for my system.

I selected the first update for installation and it downloaded and installed in less than 5 minutes. But when I try to install the next update, the "Downloading updates..." progress message hangs at 0% for hours and never completes.

My internet connection is fine. Something is wrong with the Windows Update "Downloading" function. I've read threads about resetting the Windows Update components manually:
url= https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 6e5?auth=1
but I'm not real comfortable trying that unless it's a proven solution.

Have you seen this problem before? Do you have any suggestions? I'd appreciate your advice.
Thanks.
tobymeister
 

Re: A couple of questions on WSUS Offline and Windows Update

Postby Dalai » 06.01.2017, 15:23

tobymeister wrote:Have you seen this problem before?

I've read about it every now and then, happening on Win7 systems, but I never experienced it myself. People reporting such things also said that the download eventually completed after some time, varying from minutes to hours (IIRC).

Do you have any suggestions?

Is there any network activity (see Task Manager)? The only thing I can suggest is to wait until the download finishes. Resetting Windows Update might help, too, but I'm not so sure if it really helps with the downloading part. I don't see anything drastic in the HowTo you linked, so I'd give it a go. However, it can't hurt to create in image of the system, so you can restore it if anything goes wrong.

Regards
Dalai
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Posts: 1041
Joined: 12.07.2016, 21:00


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