I don’t spend much time on my Windows 7 boot, and even if I did I would not have known. The Windows 7 Update program has been broken since October 2016. I did not receive any message to tell me to fix the error, so went without bug fixes for 6 months. For an automatic updating system that has been in existence for many years, this shows disrespect for Windows customers.
When I did try to do Windows Update, it would show me the old update options and allow me to submit update requests, but then wait indefinitely for updates to download. There was no error message whatsoever to tell me something else was wrong.
How easy is it to fix this? There is a post by a smart German named Dalai
The steps are quite simple but do take some time waiting for Microsoft’s server.
- Turn off automatic Windows Updates to Never Check, reboot
- Download 2 update files, the Servicing Stack Update September 2016 first, and then July 2016 Rollup, and install
- Reboot
- Check for Windows Updates, which takes about 15 minutes
- At this point Windows Updates should be working again
In my last Windows Update there were some incompatibilities, so I followed the instructions and had to reboot 3 times, but it eventually did come back to life.
For something so fundamental to an operating system like updates, this should not leave Windows users stranded and without updates for 6 months. As there is no message to users, this will continue.
Microsoft’s disdain to their customers on issues such as Windows updates is one of the reasons I mistrust the company and feel more secure on Ubuntu. You should consider switching over.