Windows Update

From Leo's Notes
Last edited on 30 December 2021, at 01:49.

Windows 7

Update Hangs at 'Checking for Updates'

If updates are not happening and it appears to be stuck at 'checking for updates', attempt to clear the updates store and try again. Updates are stored in:

  1. %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\Catroot2
  2. %SYSTEMROOT%\SoftwareDistribution

Start a Command Prompt as Administrator, then run: 

net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
net stop cryptsvc
ren %systemroot%\System32\Catroot2 Catroot2.old
ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
net start cryptsvc
net start bits
net start wuauserv

Windows 10

Disabling Updates

There is no way to disable updates completely on Windows 10 Pro. My current work around is to make the primary network interface metered to block Windows from downloading updates - but this appears to cause updates to just fail and in doing so use up lots of CPU and flooding the logs with errors.

Windows