Hey guys, a question for those more advanced than me with PCs. My only PC is a four and a half year old laptop. It was one of the very last Windows 7 machines that the store that I used to work at sold when I picked in up in the Autumn of 2012. Yes, its old, and yes I'd like to replace it, but that's not happening right now. My issue is that for a while now, I've had trouble doing Windows updates. When I attempt to, it will sometimes stay at 0% indefinately before eventually crashing and giving up, will sometimes gradually, slowly do a download but not get to 100% and crash/give up, and will sometimes actually do the update. After looking into it, its very clearly not just me. Tons of other people have been complaining about it for a while, going back at least to 2016. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a clear solution. The common remedies seem to include downloading the individual updates one by one, which only works a small percentage more than the auto updates, and suggesting turning off your internet protection/firewall and trying to download it then, which seems very dangerous. Like most people, I'm very concerned about the new spyware/ransomware thats going around, and I'd like to protect my machine. I already backed up all of my data on an external drive, but Id still like to make sure my PC doesn't get hit. I was able to download and install what seems to be the most important component of the patch, but I would still very much like to do all of them. Any suggestions that don't include buying a new PC and/or a Mac?
Linux is almost never a realistic option. My recommendation is to delete your Windows Update cache and then have it search for new updates. You can follow these steps to do so. Alternatively, you can try to install the Windows 7 update rollup. That will solve your immediate issue but you may have issues going forward installing updates. So I recommend trying to clear cache first. You should also install this KB hotfix from Microsoft, which may alleviate the core issue.
Thank you guys. It seems that it was some issue with my home internet connection that was causing the trouble, even though it never has before. Just to see what would happen, I've brought my PC to my local public library, and was able to download them easily. I guess I can keep doing that until my situation changes. A lot of trouble for about 300 MB of data!
