How to Repair Windows Update in Windows 7

In the coming months, Microsoft will ramp up its pressure to remind the 35 percent of the market that extended support for Windows 7 ends on January 14, 2020. Given the current state of Windows 10, user resistance is expected to be considerable. However, installing Windows 7 today brings other headaches, the most important being a nearly broken Windows Update system. If you want (or need) to know how to repair Windows Update in Windows 7, then we have a good tool for you.

The end of Windows 7 support is approaching, and as expected, the Redmond giant has already started making moves. The generic recommendation for end users is inspired by the Borg (“install Windows 10, resistance is futile”), but the business world has a lot of money on the table and demands other solutions. One of them is the paid extension of support, with a maximum of three years and a considerable price per Pro or Enterprise terminal, while the rest of us float like a cork in the water. Moreover, the lack of updates on a clean Windows 7 SP1 image turns its deployment into a nightmare. Most comments point in the same direction: depending on the computer, Windows Update on a recent Windows 7 installation can take hours to generate the list of hotfixes, or never do it at all. Microsoft has released some patches, but has not shown much interest in explaining the process.

How to repair Windows Update in Windows 7 with Windows Update Loop Fix

This is where the script/wizard Windows Update Loop Fix comes in, designed by GitHub user aakkam22. The explanation is simple: the original Windows 7 SP1 images are so old that they can’t talk to today’s Windows Update servers, and building a new bridge between them requires several steps. Windows Update Loop Fix applies a full reset to Windows Update in Windows 7 SP1 (including purging the infamous SoftwareDistribution folder), installs the latest update agent, and installs three hotfixes: KB3020369, KB3172605, and KB3102810, which (in theory) fix the excessive CPU usage by svchost.exe while it searches for patches online. I say “in theory” because its addiction to CPU cycles never completely disappeared.

The only role of advanced mode is to add a manual layer to each of the steps mentioned above, but I have had very good results using express mode. On a clean Spanish Windows 7 SP1 copy, Windows Update took about 20 minutes with the repairs done. Windows Update Loop Fix only works with Windows 7 SP1, and it cannot do anything about the time the hotfixes themselves take to install. The first Windows Update scan downloads almost two gigabytes of patches and fixes, and whatever svchost doesn’t consume in CPU, it occupies in memory.

Editor’s note: don’t forget to run the wizard with administrator privileges.

Official site and download: Click here