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Windows Update

Windows 7[edit | edit source]

Update Hangs at 'Checking for Updates'[edit | edit source]

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[edit | edit source]

Disabling Updates[edit | edit source]

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