Windows 7 Update - how to speed it up

[Breelander]

Executive Summary:
Installing this one 'rollup' update from Microsoft allows you to delete all superseded ones. It's like installing a Service Pack and makes checking for new updates a much simpler task. Times can be reduced from many hours down to a few minutes. This is an updated and condensed version of this Thread...

Author: breelander - Subject: Windows 7 update tips - Date: 21/07/2016 14:45

Code: Select all

https://web.archive.org/web/20161110192832/http://boards.fool.co.uk/windows-7-update-tips-13407268.aspx?sort=whole

As you'll probably know by now I'm an enthusiastic early adopter of Windows 10. I do however have two systems I wish to keep running Windows 7. Both are clones of the OEM Windows 7 drives for my upgraded laptops. One runs Home Premium (x64), the other Pro (x86).

A known problem in Windows 7 is that over time the 'check for updates' process becomes increasingly slow. This is because so many previously installed updates means that checking for new ones can to take a very long time. Service Packs draw a line in the sand and effectively say: 'this is a new OS, start checking from here'. Unfortunately Win7's SP1 was a very long time ago.

Windows Update keeps all the old updates, even if they have subsequently been replaced. This is in case you should ever wish to roll back to a very early update (though why you should want to is beyond me). This is another case where a Service Pack draws a line in the sand - you can't roll back to anything before SP1.

SP1 was the last for Windows 7, but there is now something that (in all but name) is a 'service pack' - KB3125574, the Convenience rollup update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 If you install it you can remove all outdated updates with Disk Clean Up's 'clean up system files' option, the two key items to delete are 'Windows Update Cleanup' and 'Service pack backup files'. On both my systems 'check for updates' now takes a couple of minutes, previously it was several hours.

NB: The 'Convenience rollup update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1' is not delivered automatically through the Windows Update service. The only way to get KB3125574 is to download it yourself from the Microsoft Update Catalog here: http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com ... =KB3125574

Also note that you will have drawn your own 'line in the sand' and no longer be able to roll back to those deleted updates. For me that's a small price to pay for curing 'check for updates' tendency to work on a geological timescale.

..we’re making available a new convenience rollup for Windows 7 SP1 that will help. This convenience rollup package, available to download from <edit>the Microsoft Update Catalog </edit> contains all the security and non-security fixes released since the release of Windows 7 SP1 that are suitable for general distribution, up through April 2016. Install this one update, and then you only need new updates released after April 2016.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/win ... 7-and-8-1/

With one of my systems updated successfully, I decided to look very closely at what went on while updating my second one. In an elevated command prompt I used DIR /S /W to see the size of WinSxS (this is where the downloaded updates are stored) and SYSTEMINFO to display (amongst many other things) a list of all installed updates (or Hotfixes as it calls them) and their total number. The results confirm that the 'Convenience rollup' followed by a Disk Cleanup significantly reduces the number of installed updates and that the size of WinSxS is smaller than before it was installed.

System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, install date 18/06/2014 (reset to factory defaults using OEM recovery partition), Windows Update run regularly and last updated 11/07/2016.

Before I started, DIR /s winsxs reported: Total Files Listed:
66887 File(s) 13,984,809,667 bytes

and SYSTEMINFO reported:267 Hotfix(s) Installed.

After installing KB3125574 Convenience Rollup: Total Files Listed:
75628 File(s) 15,587,360,272 bytes
268 Hotfix(s) Installed.

Disk Cleanup now reports: Windows Update Cleanup - 2.11 GB and in the description for this item says: You might need to restart your computer. A restart is indeed required, as it then goes through the usual 'Windows is configuring uppdates' screens and followed by a lengthy 'Cleaning up...' screen, after which...

Total Files Listed:
65288 File(s) 12,806,406,286 bytes
122 Hotfix(s) Installed.


WinSxS was now 1,599 files and 1.1 GB smaller than before (though some of this apparent reduction may be due to less hard links being present). The number of installed updates had more than halved and it is this, I think, that makes checking for new updates so much faster - it now takes 1 min 20 secs on this machine.

My primary objective was to cure the 'glacial' progress when checking for updates. If your concern is storage space then bear in mind that Windows Update creates a new restore point each time it installs new updates. There is a 'More Options' tab in Disk Cleanup where you can delete all but the most recent restore point. For me that released a further 8 GB or so.

[Slarti]

SP1 was the last for Windows 7, but there is now something that (in all but name) is a 'service pack' - KB3125574, the Convenience rollup update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 If you install it you can remove all outdated updates with Disk Clean Up's 'clean up system files' option, the two key items to delete are 'Windows Update Cleanup' and 'Service pack backup files'. On both my systems 'check for updates' now takes a couple of minutes, previously it was several hours.

But it is very hard to tell what it has installed, so you need total trust in MS not to install KB3068708, KB3075249, KB3080149 or KB3083710 in the midst of everything else.

I'd rather know what is going on.

Since the demise of the Win10 "offer" update speed has increased a lot and I am quite happy to leave it looking while I have a meal.

Slarti

[Breelander]

If you clean install Windows 7 SP1 you will need to install KB2852386, the optional Disk Cleanup Wizard addon that lets users delete outdated Windows updates on Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/2852386

If you have run Windows 7 for some time you will almost certainly have had that update by now, so won't need to install it yourself.