Win 7, Cannot Do Updates

I haven't been able to install updates to my Toshiba Win 7, 64 bit, since last Dec. Admittedly, I have been setting the updates to manual, but everytime I went to update, I would get the message that Win 10 was downloading, I don't want Win 10! And I've been putting off updates until now, but I know I should have this fixed!
So I ran the GWX control panel I found here to eliminate the Win 10 stuff. But now, when I check for updates, the lappy just hangs on "Checking for Updates", for well over an hour, with no end.
I haven't yet tried the Microsoft fix updates page, because I'm afraid that will just start the Win 10 update cycle over again! Or, will it?
Or, is there some other fix I could try first??

 

Running the Windows Update Fixit won't download Windows 10. It strictly fixes problems with Windows Update. I've had to run it in Windows 7 once and numerous times in Windows 8.1.

This months updates for Windows 7 took quite a while for the search to complete for several of the people on the Forums. There was a thread started about it.

 

And that doesn't reactivate the Win 10 upgrades...the was the beginning of all my issues? Anytime I tried to do a software update/security patch, regardless of the selections I made in the "View Available" update menu, it would immediately indicate it was downloading Win 10. Why is MS so insistent upon this new OS anyway???

 

I'll just add to what mdonah said and say when you are trying to download a large number of updates start with the oldest and only download a few at a time until you have the newest downloaded and installed. If you do not want Win10 watch for the update KB3035583 (Windows 10 upgrade preparation) and uncheck it. Also uncheck the Win10 upgrade before you download the rest of the updates.

 

If you can not uncheck the updates in Windows Updates manually you could look at this
GWX Control Panel
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/gwx_control_panel.html

 

As far as the KB3035583, it might be better to right click on it and select hide.

Re Microsoft pushing Win 10: Win 10 is the last iteration of Windows. There will be no Windows 11. They want to make Win 10 a service rather than an OS in the future. It will simplify things for them to have only one Windows iteration to maintain. It's going to be "pushed" on everyone whether we like it or not.

Interestingly though, some features of Windows 7 were resurrected in Windows 10 (like the Windows 7 Backup and Restore). They're quite different in Win 8 & 8.1.

 

From my experience anyway, even if you hide it you have to keep a lookout that it does not show up in updates again. Seems not everyone not have the same experience with this issue. There are several threads about preventing Win10 here on Major Geeks with good information. Good luck.

 

Yes, it (KB3055583) will keep showing up, but if you run GWX Control Panel and take all the options Win 10 won't download or try to install. There is a registry fix but this is easiest for most users. Best to open GWX Control Panel from time to time and run its options again, just to be sure. The time will come when you will want it. I'm now using it on my main system, which I had intended to keep on Win 7, but it's absolutely fine - better than 7.

 

Do you mean you're running Windows 10 on your main system? What took you so long?

 

I had never had updates take so long on my Win7 until the latest ones Windows rolled out. Win8.1 updated quickly. It seemed like Win7 was going to be stuck searching for updates forever. I finally set my computer to Never Sleep and let it run all night. After 16 hours it finally downloaded and installed the updates. So I second the Be patient advice plodr gave.

 

I have a small HP laptop with Windows 7 with 4GB ram and having the same issues. Did a major and thorough clean up with the intent of upgrading to Windows 10
-deleted all user profiles to dump files and save a ton of space
-uninstalled all 3rd party software and got down to basic OS, Java, MS Office,
-updated all drivers using ASC Driver Booster
-downloaded ASC which I own a copy of and ran the Pro version fixing registry and all other issues
-ran ASC smart defrag to defragment diac
-installed, ran separately, and uninstalled 4 different anti-virus packages to clean up those issues
Found that the CPU was running at 100% and discovered the KB fix for that, it was the Windows Update service. Once that happened Windows update found 159 updates and started automatically downloading without showing me the list!, so I let it go, took maybe 8 hours to complete the download and shutdown configuration. This morning the startup configuration has resulted in a "Reverting changes" do not turn off your computer, so will see where that leads...

So, a couple of things. I assume from reading this thread that the problem with the install is a combination of windows 7 and windows 10 files? I could go back and run Windows update and install files a few at a time, using GWX Control Panel to disable downloading Windows 10 files, this should make Windows 7 fully up to date hopefully without corruption. Then I would go through the normal Windows 10 upgrade process (which I've done on my desktop flawlessly).

Or, do I even need to worry about getting Windows 7 upgraded? If I go straight to the Windows 10 upgrade will it work even if Windows 7 is outdated by a couple of years? (this laptop has been sitting unused since my daughter switched to a MacBook). Is the Windows 10 install a "clean" over-the-top install deleting all old Windows 7 files or does it use some of the Windows 7 files, for example I understand that it uses the Windows 7 back up and recovery system and not the Windows 8 system which was different somehow.

 

You might want to follow Plodr's advice in post #6 earlier:
1. Set Windows Update to ONLY 'notify' you of updates but not install them
2. Do a search for updates
3. Choose the oldest that are marked 'important', and do them in small batches - restarting your system each time
4. Click on 'hide' for those mentioned above that relate to Windows 10

 

Thanks everyone, Windows 10 installed and working great. Wanted to get back to you and tell you about two things I found for future reference (you probably already know).
1. There is a folder at Windows/SoftwareDistribution/Downloads that keeps all Windows Updates, it had 55,000+ items and was 1.4GB in size. I read that this could be deleted (it was full of Win7 updates and I did't need to retain the history). Once I did this all other things I had been trying seemed to work. This appears to be like a permanent Temp folder, you don't need whats in it but it doesn't identify as a temp folder in CCleaner.
2. I ended up just selecting all and deleting. The correct method I understand is to run the cmd line, stop the windows update service, delete the entire folder, restart the windows update, check to see that a new folder has been created after a restart. but even though I was logged in as administrator, in the cmd line it told me I need to be logged in as the administrator! I found that back in the run box, after typing cmd if you hold down the SHIFT+CONTROL+ENTER it will take you into the cmd line in admin mode. After this it didn't work anyway giving me a "system 5 error" so I reverted to a manual delete, assuming or hoping whatever system 5 error meant would be corrected with the Windows 10 install.

Not sure what was causing the Windows Update service to use 100% of the cpu but that has been corrected with the upgrade. The laptop runs better now than Win7 ever did.

The only irritation remaining is that when I was cleaning up I used several virus cleaners including Avast, and Avast hid an upgrade remainder somewhere I cant find that survived the upgrade to Windows 10, now I get a pop up reminding me to upgrade Avast every 30 minutes! I deleted all registry entries I know of by deleting folders for all uninstalled software from H Key User/Software and H Key Local Machine/Software before the upgrade including Avast but the reminder popup is still alive somewhere.

Thanks again everyone.

 

Is this like a ploy from Microsoft to drive all of us Win7 users to despair so we'll upgrade to Win10? I just did a clean install of Win7 and nix updates. Have Kaspersky and it won't install without the Win updates. Never had these problems before so one must wonder why now?

 

There's another thread running about this HERE. Seems you 7 users are going to have to live with it.