HOW MANY UPDATES??!!

[Loose rivets]

My OEM OS - W7 Professional 32 on my old Texas PC is on its 4th lot of 90+ updates. I'm on my friend's brisk BT network so it's not taking too long, but I'm worried about her byte count.

I put in the original OEM disk - a home build with all receipts from Fresh Egg or the like. It's run for 5 years and I know (from an answer on this forum the other day) that it would have been better to download the OS and use the key, but I wanted to comply with MS since they've OK'd the change of busted drive to an SSD. However, I had no idea there'd be SO many updates.

450 now, and counting. Is this in the ballpark, or is it in a loop?

[Saab Dastard]

If it's pre-SP1 then that sounds about right.

SD

[Loose rivets]

Still going and up to at least 800 with no sign of SP1

All but one have been 92. That's why I wondered if it had gone into some kind of loop. I've got a very old W7 which has never taken this kind of bringing up to date. Most odd.

[BOAC]

Time to stop and look at 'history'?

[Saab Dastard]

a quick look reveals 372 updates in my history, that's from an SP1 base - 294 are Windows updates, the rest are Office 2010 and .Net updates. Doesn't include IE security updates.

800 is getting silly!

SD

[BEagle]

When Dell replaced the hard drive in my Vostro 3300 7 weeks ago, they installed Win7 from the disk which came with the computer in 2010, plus various drivers. I then reinstalled Office 2007.

Since then I've had 214 updates for Win7, including SP1 and Office 2007, plus the odd IE and Adobe update.

800 seems rather a lot.

[Loose rivets]

To quote Mr Draper . . . Buggah! Looks like a definite no go.

The system seems to run well, but shutdown always shows the update warning. Just one time it had less than 92 updates. Is it some sort of convention to send it in lumps of 92?

I wonder if it's MS telling me I can't have OEM soft on the new disc - so often in this world the word of one department means nothing to another department. Another long call I suppose.

History? Can you tell me how to check just what state of updateness I've reached?

[le Pingouin]

Open Windows Update and click "View update history".

[le Pingouin]

And while you're fiddling with Windows Update you could try installing the outstanding updates a dozen (to pick a number) at a time.

In Windows Update click on "Check for Updates" then click on "92 important updates are available" when that appears.

You'll be presented with a list of updates. Deselect the entire list (the tick at the very top) then select the first dozen and click "OK". Repeat until it fails, then narrow the selection to find the sticking point.

[Loose rivets]

That sounds like a good idea. I'll be a bit more circumspect about updating in the future, and small batches would, or could be, illuminating.

BOAC Why didn't I think of that. By now I'd poured myself a brandy and calmed down. Always a good first step, and indeed the history showed some okay, but a long list of 'failed'.

I then beat the system by not pressing shut down, but hit Restart. When the BIOS started reporting, I turned the system off with the power switch. I then started from there - there was now no update thingie on the shutdown button.

I then went to the check for updates and other items but now armed with having seen tick/check 'Accept terms' mentioned in a couple of MS Fixit places that I was reading up. That HAD NOT been presented with the shutdown initiation of updates. I accepted the terms and went through the procedures. There were 94 needed, and at that stage had not seen your idea. Anyway, they ran okay, and at last the Service pack was Assembling and then installing etc., etc.

I hope I haven't dirtied up this clean disc - or indeed worn it out! (Thread this week)

Now to reinstall Office 2010. In my chats with MS, they checked and told me I'd had two goes out of the three seats it allowed. They were right. Now I need to be sure I don't use my last go on the re-install - I need that for the used Vaio I bought back to the UK.

Thanks everyone.


SP 1 and (re)Activation successful. Phew!

[boguing]

Just out of interest - and to try and help you stay sane if you're working on the thing today.

My fully up-to-date W7 added 200+ updates yesterday, and 20,029 this morning.

[Loose rivets]

:ooh: You could give a detailed description of the Universe with that much code.

An aside: A while back someone on telly made an obvious but amusing statement. The entire Universe could be described with the four possible states of the Morse code. I suppose they were including long and short pauses. I have a feeling I wouldn't be around to hear the end of such a description.

[boguing]

Read an article recently that said the there are now more stored bits of data on Earth than atoms in the known universe. So, as you say, a succinct description of it should easily fit inside 20,029 Windows updates.

Perfectly able to resist a challenge, Microsoft failed to fit anything of any interest at all.

[Booglebox]

there are now more stored bits of data on Earth than atoms in the known universe
Okay, but I guess every bit of data needs at least one atom to store it... right? :bored:
Therefore the only escape from this circular logic is to assume that every atom is data storage, that stores itself...? :ouch:
Where does it end? I suppose it's turtles all the way down... :ooh:

[OFSO]

there are now more stored bits of data on Earth than atoms in the known universe

Hence the bods are now working on storage to be off-universe. Those interested should start watching "Futurama" for details presented in an easy-to-understand form.

[BOAC]

That would have to be the Magellan cloud storage, I guess.................

[boguing]

Holographic memory is hoping to achieve 35 bits per electron. I know that Earth has quite a few electrons, but for the statement that I quoted to be true, it means that not much of the universe is known.

What worries me is that OFSO's off-universe storage will rapidly fill with pictures of kittens. The turtles have no chance.

[Loose rivets]

So this kitty is not all that compressed by comparison?


BBC News - Flexible nano-pixel screen patented (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28231084)

[boguing]

That's a Raid array. Mirrored and striped.