TM Forums
Back to search

Windows updates

#Post
1

I just installed windows 7 onto a laptop which was so old that it had a modem built in. It took less than 30 minutes. It could have been only 20 minutes, as I didn't check on it for a while.

If the whole OS can install in such a short time, why are these Windows 10 updates taking so long? I've had the computer hang for hours upon restart.

The mind boggles.

tygertung - 2021-04-02 17:27:00
2
tygertung wrote:

The mind boggles.

yep. Now what windows 10 updates? and what's the relevance to a windows 7 installation? Win 7 and Win 10 are very different beasts, you're not really comparing apples with apples so to speak...

king1 - 2021-04-02 17:34:00
3

I don't have a w10 licence key so I don't know how long it takes to install.

tygertung - 2021-04-02 17:50:00
4
tygertung wrote:

I don't have a w10 licence key so I don't know how long it takes to install.


That's totally done my head in !. Off to therapy,

asmawa1 - 2021-04-02 18:03:00
5
tygertung wrote:

I don't have a w10 licence key so I don't know how long it takes to install.

decent hardware and an ssd, installed off a flash drive, maybe 10-15 minutes. Any query about how long it takes etc, is always going to be a "depends on the hardware..." kind of answer

Edited by king1 at 6:06 pm, Fri 2 Apr

king1 - 2021-04-02 18:04:00
6
tygertung wrote:

I don't have a w10 licence key so I don't know how long it takes to install.

You don't need a license key to download and install Windows 10.

gyrogearloose - 2021-04-02 18:20:00
7

Anyway the Windows 7 installed much faster than Windows XP on the same machine (getting drivers for Windows XP was a bit of a problem), so I would imagine that Windows 10 might install even faster.

Why then, if it installs quickly, does it take so many hours to do the updates, rendering the computer unusable whilst it is doing them?

tygertung - 2021-04-02 20:53:00
8
gyrogearloose wrote:

You don't need a license key to download and install Windows 10.


So true, But you do to activate it legally

swivel - 2021-04-02 21:00:00
9
tygertung wrote:


Why then, if it installs quickly, does it take so many hours to do the updates, rendering the computer unusable whilst it is doing them?

you're seriously asking questions like this after installing "onto a laptop which was so old that it had a modem built in"?
There are several hundred individual security updates after an install of 7 are there not?

king1 - 2021-04-02 21:03:00
10

Actually I have no idea why it has a modem built in, it is from 2007, so who would be using dialup still in 2007?

tygertung - 2021-04-03 07:42:00
11
tygertung wrote:

Actually I have no idea why it has a modem built in, it is from 2007, so who would be using dialup still in 2007?

Plenty of people using dail up then.

nice_lady - 2021-04-03 08:07:00
12

In fact it is so modern that it has 64 bit processor.

tygertung - 2021-04-03 08:08:00
13

Install 10 and activate it with the 7 key, assuming it's legit.

xtr19633001 - 2021-04-03 09:26:00
14
xtr19633001 wrote:

Install 10 and activate it with the 7 key, assuming it's legit.

Will 10 go as fast as 7? The key is legit, it is written on a casing of a desktop and has not been used.

tygertung - 2021-04-03 11:41:00
15
tygertung wrote:

I don't have a w10 licence key so I don't know how long it takes to install.

A few minutes, far less time than 7 did

ronaldo8 - 2021-04-03 12:50:00
16
xtr19633001 wrote:

Install 10 and activate it with the 7 key, assuming it's legit.

No, you need to install 7, activate that, then run an upgrade, not a clean install. An attempt to clean install using a 7 key will not work, that was disabled several years ago. Upgrade install however does still function, it will upgrade the 7 license to a 10 on that hardware. Once that is done you can then do the clean install.

ronaldo8 - 2021-04-03 12:54:00
17

Win 10 struggles on older hardware I have found, but if you max out the ram (min 4gb) and add an ssd it'll go much faster

muppet_slayer - 2021-04-03 12:57:00
18
ronaldo8 wrote:

No, you need to install 7, activate that, then run an upgrade, not a clean install. An attempt to clean install using a 7 key will not work, that was disabled several years ago. Upgrade install however does still function, it will upgrade the 7 license to a 10 on that hardware. Once that is done you can then do the clean install.


No you don't. Run the 10 installer do a clean install, choose "I don't have a product key", then when installed go into the activation settings, and enter the 7 key there. I've done this as recently as December, it works.

xtr19633001 - 2021-04-03 14:01:00
19
tygertung wrote:

Anyway the Windows 7 installed much faster than Windows XP on the same machine (getting drivers for Windows XP was a bit of a problem), so I would imagine that Windows 10 might install even faster.

Why then, if it installs quickly, does it take so many hours to do the updates, rendering the computer unusable whilst it is doing them?

I do my updates overnight - never had a problem.

athena2 - 2021-04-03 14:40:00
20
muppet_slayer wrote:

Win 10 struggles on older hardware I have found, but if you max out the ram (min 4gb) and add an ssd it'll go much faster

The problem there is that the older hardware won't have the sata interface for the SSD, and the price for the old style memory is more expensive than the DDR4 for the same capacity and doesn't come in 16GB modules - and despite investing you're still stuck with a slow processor and graphics.

gyrogearloose - 2021-04-03 16:29:00
21
gyrogearloose wrote:

The problem there is that the older hardware won't have the sata interface for the SSD, and the price for the old style memory is more expensive than the DDR4 for the same capacity and doesn't come in 16GB modules - and despite investing you're still stuck with a slow processor and graphics.

Oh yeah I forgot about that. I don't think win10 should be installed onto IDE systems fullstop. Personally I have played around with old gear and installed 10 onto them (oldest one being an XP laptop) but they always hesitate and run slower than the original OS they should have on them, and like you say the ram is very expensive, and then there's the drivers.

We have mostly win7 machines here all running 10 without any problems. I did have trouble with my desktop, a presario CQ3420an, after an update the integrated graphics decided to do strange things, I fixed it by buying a win10 compatible graphics card, a GT 710, seems to go alright now. But yes I wholeheartedly agree with you.

muppet_slayer - 2021-04-03 16:42:00
22
xtr19633001 wrote:


No you don't. Run the 10 installer do a clean install, choose "I don't have a product key", then when installed go into the activation settings, and enter the 7 key there. I've done this as recently as December, it works.

On a machine that had previously already had 10 activated on it by chance? On one that hasn't that functionality was disabled long ago.

ronaldo8 - 2021-04-03 17:56:00
23

Well well, after doing some digging I stand corrected, MS have now reverted that particular pain in the neck to how it was in the first year after release. You can indeed now license from a clean install with a 7 key again, as long as its never been previously used to do so obviously, and no volume licenses, just single licenses of equivalent version.

That's good news.

Edited by ronaldo8 at 6:28 pm, Sat 3 Apr

ronaldo8 - 2021-04-03 18:23:00
24
ronaldo8 wrote:

A few minutes, far less time than 7 did

So if it can install in only a few minutes, why should the updates take hours?!

tygertung - 2021-04-04 09:27:00
25

Good question, never seen that myself, if i had to guess you lost connection somewhere in the middle, ended up with a munted download which then partially installed, backed itself out, tried again untill its failure counter was hit then finally fetched again the offending packages. Or something along those lines.

7 was plagued by ultra slow updates for over a year at one point, was due to a lockfile getting incorrectly set as I recall. Updates could take up to a day as the thing tried to overcome it.

I ended up writing my own workaround shell script for it that subverted built in windows update . Im sure others here will remember that magical time of trying to get 7 updated. A partial or recovered install can cause all sorts of grief like that. Were there any hickups doing the initial install? A corrupted local cache can also do it. Or a removed one if its trying to pull from local sources then failing to find them has to go get them

Edited by ronaldo8 at 10:04 am, Sun 4 Apr

ronaldo8 - 2021-04-04 09:52:00
26

Zealous turning off of services in the misguided and mistaken belief that a low memory footprint is akin to high performance is allso a possibility ? Just wondering.

This mindset being a hangover from xp days when the amount of memory was often a bottleneck. The point being that if its available and you use it, rather than try to conserve it, you get a far better performing machine. A fact that more modern os's are deliberately designed to take advantage of.

Edited by ronaldo8 at 10:15 am, Sun 4 Apr

ronaldo8 - 2021-04-04 10:12:00
27
tygertung wrote:

So if it can install in only a few minutes, why should the updates take hours?!

The Windows 10 feature upgrades that are released once or twice a year are essentially a replacement of the entire operating system, and it helps if you have a fast internet connection and plenty of free disk space but will still take hours. PC's without an SSD might have disk fragmentation issues, and if you have a flaky internet connection it might start again from the beginning. If you've done a fresh install from an older copy of Windows 10 you could expect one of these feature updates to start pretty much immediately.

The monthly updates should be much quicker depending on how big they are, because they're just replacing parts rather than the whole OS.

gyrogearloose - 2021-04-04 11:06:00
28

hard drives of course...an operating system on a hard drive, like poking yourself in the eye with a stick. Ahh the good ol days...poke.

ronaldo8 - 2021-04-04 11:38:00
29

Imagine if you had a fresh install of Windows 10, which was completely factory, with no changes having been done to it, and then some updates came along.

Should it take way longer to do those updates than the original install?

tygertung - 2021-04-04 13:02:00
30
tygertung wrote:

Imagine if you had a fresh install of Windows 10, which was completely factory, with no changes having been done to it, and then some updates came along.

Should it take way longer to do those updates than the original install?

why are you persisting with this? it's not even a relevant or meaningful comparison. They take as long as they take, given the hardware constraints...

king1 - 2021-04-04 13:56:00
31
tygertung wrote:

Imagine if you had a fresh install of Windows 10, which was completely factory, with no changes having been done to it, and then some updates came along.

Should it take way longer to do those updates than the original install?

It is what it is mate. Not much use kicking and screaming about it.

The better the hardware, the better your computing experience all round will be.

nice_lady - 2021-04-04 14:04:00
32

I have a 8 core 16 thread CPU, 32Gb of Ram and a Samsung NVMe SSD. Windows updates usually take a couple of minutes at worst for me unless it is a feature update and then you may be looking at 5-10 minutes.

I give the OP credit though, 30 posts in and no mention of Linux yet!!

cube_guy - 2021-04-04 15:34:00
33

Lol ????

nice_lady - 2021-04-04 15:41:00
34
tygertung wrote:

Imagine if you had a fresh install of Windows 10, which was completely factory, with no changes having been done to it, and then some updates came along.

Should it take way longer to do those updates than the original install?

Two totally different actions. One is just laying the OS onto the hard drive with no changes, the other is inserting files into that OS making changes, of course the latter will take longer.

muppet_slayer - 2021-04-04 16:03:00
35

wait for it...

king1 - 2021-04-04 16:12:00
36

hark, the sound of disgruntled penguins.

ronaldo8 - 2021-04-04 17:44:00
37
cube_guy wrote:

I have a 8 core 16 thread CPU, 32Gb of Ram and a Samsung NVMe SSD. Windows updates usually take a couple of minutes at worst for me unless it is a feature update and then you may be looking at 5-10 minutes.

I give the OP credit though, 30 posts in and no mention of Linux yet!!

Why should you bring up Linux? It is not relevant to Windows updates.

Keep on topic please.

tygertung - 2021-04-05 12:25:00
38
tygertung wrote:

Why should you bring up Linux? It is not relevant to Windows updates.

Keep on topic please.

lol, defensive much? everything you post is a subtle dig at windows so it's really not surprising...

Edited by king1 at 12:55 pm, Mon 5 Apr

king1 - 2021-04-05 12:52:00
39

Speaking of Windows, I am going to try and get a Compaq Pressario 5000 from the year 2000 going with Windows ME. I wonder how it will cope with the modern internet.

tygertung - 2021-04-05 13:16:00
40

Dooonnnnntttt !!!
Not unless you're a Masochist.

nice_lady - 2021-04-05 14:18:00
41

My girlfriend loved Zork; I tried building up a Dos 3.22 machine with Windows 3.1 from diskettes, I had several original sets, couple of disk drives. I'd forgotten how tedious it was sitting there swapping in diskettes, then trying to find drivers for USB mice. Gave up and then tried installing an emulator. Gave up again and then coerced it to run under Windows 10, despite the internet saying it wouldn't work. There's just no point failing to surrender and accept Windows 10.

gyrogearloose - 2021-04-05 16:31:00
42

FreeDOS? USB mouse should work with that?

tygertung - 2021-04-05 17:23:00
43
tygertung wrote:

Speaking of Windows, I am going to try and get a Compaq Pressario 5000 from the year 2000 going with Windows ME. I wonder how it will cope with the modern internet.

not well would be my prediction.

csador - 2021-04-05 20:31:00
44

I can't get it to POST unfortunately, I'm not getting any video signal, and there is no PC speaker hooked up, so can't check on any beeping sounds; it isn't in the original case, so there isn't the right plug for the PC speaker.

I reduced the RAM right down to 64 MB and everything. I might see if I can jury rig a PC speaker, but I have a feeling that the motherboard has gone bad. Apparently they were bad for bad capacitors.

tygertung - 2021-04-06 11:38:00
45

Hi, I want to buy a laptop, just a plain ordinary laptop. There are so many different names. notebook, gaming etc. please tell me what to look for.

dellie1 - 2021-04-06 12:21:00
46

what do you want to do with the laptop? if its gmail & internet, just get a chromebook.

bitsnpieces2020 - 2021-04-06 13:03:00
47

Look for an ASUS they are really reliable.

tygertung - 2021-04-06 14:28:00
48

Bad capacitors are usually very visibly bad, bulging etc.

Also do a cmos reset using the pins on the mobo

Edited by nice_lady at 2:50 pm, Tue 6 Apr

nice_lady - 2021-04-06 14:49:00
49

I will have to find out which are the right pins. The capacitors visually look fine.

It is difficult to see the P/N of the motherboard, so hard to find out the info.

tygertung - 2021-04-06 16:05:00
50

The pins will normally be right beside the cmos battery. There's 3 pins and Little plastic coated two pin plug that goes over 2 pins at a time.

Edited by nice_lady at 4:57 pm, Tue 6 Apr

nice_lady - 2021-04-06 16:55:00
Free Web Hosting