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Author Topic: Immense frustration with Windows Update  (Read 10502 times)

broadstairs

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Immense frustration with Windows Update
« on: November 28, 2014, 08:32:53 AM »

[rant on] My wife hates her laptop interrupting her with restarts because of installed updates so we have auto install turned off and about once a week I turn it on in the morning and see if there are any updates. This morning I found 3 which totally 745mb which should download in seconds on my VDSL. However after an hour this morning it had managed nothing at all. This happens just about every time I try to do this where it seems that it cannot find a server or if it does it downloads the stuff in bursts which can often take ages to get it all. [rant off]

Why is M$ so bad at this and why does it have to restart for almost EVERY update, its no wonder I use Linux  ;)

Stuart
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toulouse

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2014, 10:42:03 AM »

I could not agree more with your comments about M$ update, Stuart.

In addition to 2 Windows XP machines (no longer affected apparently), I run 2 Windows 8.1 and 1 Windows Vista systems plus a number of Fedora Linux machines. The two 8.1 systems often appear to stop running or locking up, and this is usually as a result of updates which have been downloaded, but need a restart for them to install.

The Fedora systems continue working, even when updates are available, and I can choose when (or if) to install the updates, and 9 out of 10 times I can update three or four machines with multiple package updates while Windows is fannying about.

My 2 cents worth


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kitz

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2014, 01:27:36 PM »

Touch wood I dont seem to have an issue with w-update, nor have I ever had a lockup.  The only issue Ive ever had with an update was to do with nVidia drivers. 

Quote
even when updates are available, and I can choose when (or if) to install the updates

Perhaps you need to check the settings?  You can too with windows.

I will admit there was a rather large update the other week (16th), but because I have it set to download and then let me install when I want it to, then it was no big deal.  I can continue working if I want to. All I have to do is click update when I want and away it goes. It probably took 5 mins at the most including the reboot.

I dont always have to reboot either.  It depends what apps you have open and what is being updated.  iirc the one last week didnt need a reboot, although the large one on the 16th did.   

You can see it doesnt bug me that often either for updates.. as proof heres my log.   You can see quite clearly that it doesnt bother me that often and puts paid to the myth that there's updates every few days. 
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kitz

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2014, 01:40:50 PM »

broadstairs..  does this help?

These are the settings that I have.  Using these settings, I get a flag in the sys tray when theres an update.   
But the important thing is that it doesnt bug me to stop what Im doing.
Using this setting also lets w-update do the downloading silently in the background, so theres no waiting around and then you choose to install at your leisure.

What I normally do is only do the update when I go downstairs to say make a brew, by the time I get back its usually done.
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HPsauce

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2014, 04:19:12 PM »

Touch wood I dont seem to have an issue with w-update, nor have I ever had a lockup. 
Same here, with a fair few systems on most variants of Windows, from XP to 10.
It does make me wonder if there's something "wrong" with these particular systems.  :-X

One issue I have found on older systems is that if they are already "tight" on RAM WU doesn't always run well or at all.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2014, 04:22:03 PM by HPsauce »
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broadstairs

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2014, 04:22:27 PM »

Kitz I have it set up OK just to warm there are updates. The usual issue is like today it can take an hour or more to download the update even if it is small. Today's update was around 800k and I left it for an hour first thing and it never downloaded anything. Second time I left it for about 30 minutes and it had started the download so I left it while we went out. On my return it had finished the install (3 fixes) but then took some 20 minutes or more to restart. It is an I3 processor so its not blisteringly fast but 20 minutes is ridiculous for 3 fixes!

Stuart
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HPsauce

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2014, 04:37:19 PM »

That sounds very odd/wrong. What version of Windows is it?
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broadstairs

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2014, 05:16:25 PM »

That sounds very odd/wrong. What version of Windows is it?

It's 8.1

Stuart
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HPsauce

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2014, 05:40:40 PM »

So why are you bothering? Just leave it alone and it sorts itself out in the background.  ???
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broadstairs

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #9 on: November 28, 2014, 06:14:14 PM »

Well if I leave it on auto then it is almost bound to have a problem when my wife comes to shut it down when finished as it will take an age to close, plus she usually uses it till the battery runs out which is not good if it is in the middle of it updating when it finally dies.

What really bugs me is that it takes an absolute age usually to find anything it can download, as I said today I left it over an hour and it downloaded 0% of 3 updates, again later in the day it took over 30 minutes to download what should take no more than a couple of minutes on fibre. So wherever it downloads from is either hugely slow, very overloaded or very limited in the number of connections. I dont understand why it always seems to do this. I think since we had this laptop it has only found the sever and downloaded straight away a couple of times.

I know Windows is designed to do updates the way it does, about time the re-designed the whole shooting match, it seems quite rare for it not to need a reboot to complete the update.

If Linux can get the Nvidia Optimus stuff a little more reliable then I'll move this laptop over to Fedora.

Stuart
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HPsauce

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #10 on: November 28, 2014, 06:20:39 PM »

This morning I found 3 which totally 745mb which should download in seconds on my VDSL.
Are you sure? 745MB. How fast is your connection? :lol:

I checked my wife's system today and there was an OPTIONAL roll-up update of about 740MB which I have decided to install. That will take a while to download on my system as it tests around 15mbps (2MBbps), at least 10 minutes I'd guess.

If you are seeing slowness regularly though, there must be something amiss in the system, maybe  a hardware issue?
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HPsauce

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #11 on: November 28, 2014, 06:33:57 PM »

at least 10 minutes I'd guess.
And about 15 minutes after I kicked it off it's clearly installing (as evidenced by looking at Task Manager) but is saying 4% downloaded.  ???

That suggests the information displayed on screen isn't accurate.
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HPsauce

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HPsauce

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Re: Immense frustration with Windows Update
« Reply #13 on: November 28, 2014, 07:19:53 PM »

about 15 minutes after I kicked it off it's clearly installing
And after an hour I went to look and it's all done, awaiting a restart.
Given it's a mahoosive roll-up that's hardly surprising. A Service Pack in all but name.  ;)

Note: this is a little old AMD processor HP mini-tower system originally sold with Vista installed and still with only 2GB of RAM.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2014, 07:22:07 PM by HPsauce »
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