Why Windows 10 updates take so long (and some potential fixes)

It’s important to keep your Windows 10 PC updated. You get security fixes, new features, small improvement tweaks, and more. Unfortunately, updating Windows 10 can often take years. Or so it might feel when you’re watching an update sit still, you pacing around knowing that you have stuff to do on your PC. This isn’t exactly a rare problem, and you’ll almost always find a thread about it in our forum and in countless others around the web. So why exactly is it taking so long, and what can you do about it?

Why do Windows 10 updates take so long?

Windows 10 is a big, complicated OS that is constantly being tweaked. While some updates are small and you might not even notice them installing, others are massive and take a good chunk of time to install. The amount of time it takes can be affected by multiple factors.

If you’re working with a low-speed internet connection, downloading a gigabyte or two — especially over a wireless connection — can take hours alone. Since you’ll often be thrown into an update without any idea of what it consists of, watching the blue screen for hours might make you think something’s gone terribly wrong. Likewise, if Microsoft’s servers are getting slammed with people all trying to download at the same time, speed can be further affected.

So, you’re enjoying fiber internet and your update is still taking forever. Does your PC have an old hard-disk drive (HDD) crammed almost to bursting with data? When was the last time you de-fragmented that bad boy? Some updates need to cover a lot of ground, and a slow drive with files everywhere won’t help. Backing up your data and reformatting is never a bad idea, but the least you can do is give that old drive some new life with a defrag.

Windows Update components might be broken

A slow internet connection or a cluttered hard drive are not the only potential problems to do with Windows Update. When pitchforks and torches are grabbed and walked over to Microsoft’s own community support forum, a moderator will usually direct the angered crowd to the Windows Update Troubleshooter tool.

Because Windows Update is its own little program, components within can break and throw the entire process off of its natural course. Running this tool might be able to fix those broken components, resulting in a faster update the next time around.

If you run this tool and find that it makes no difference, you can always run through Microsoft’s step-by-step Windows Update support page. You answer a bunch of questions and you receive potential fixes along the way.

Software might be conflicting with Windows Update

Third-party applications, services, and drivers that start when Windows starts can cause software conflicts when trying to update Windows. If you’re using a fast, wired internet connection and have a speedy solid-state drive (SSD) in your PC and are still having an issue with an update taking a considerable amount of time, you can try performing a clean boot of Windows 10 before attempting to update.

Right-click the Start button.

Click Search.

Click Services.

Click Disable all.

Click Open Task Manager.

Click Disable. Repeat steps 9 and 10 for all startup programs.

Restart your PC.

Once your PC restarts, try installing the Windows 10 update again. To enable startup items again, follow the same steps but click Enable all in step 6 and Enable in step 10.

Set a scheduled update time

An update to Windows can happen at the worst time, but you can disable auto updates and even set a schedule to have your PC do its thing overnight rather than during an important meeting.

More resources

Have a look at these other articles for more help with Windows Update.

Updated July 10, 2018: I’ve refreshed this guide to ensure you’re still getting the best advice when it comes to troubleshooting a slow Windows 10 update.

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Windows Update Diagnostic taking too long

I have this windows update problem where it would just stay at 0% no matter how long I wait. I searched the problem on Google and I ended up using this windows update diagnostic. Right when I thought that my problem was solved, It’s stuck on this resolving problems stage and I’ve waited hours for it to finish. Nothing’s Happening.

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community forums.

Did you make any significant hardware or software changes to the computer prior to this issue?

What is the exact error message that you get while installing the updates?

The issue may arise if the Windows update downloaded packages are corrupt. So, I would suggest you to try the following steps and check if the issue persists.

Method 1:

Try to run the Windows update troubleshooter provided in the following link.

Try installing the updates after running the troubleshooter.

Method 2:

I would suggest you to Use Deployment Image Servicing and Management to fix Windows Update errors.

a) Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, press Windows key + Q and type on CMD right click on Command Prompt from the list and select Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.

b) Type the following commands. Press Enter after each command

• DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth
• DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

c) Close the command prompt, and then run Windows Update again.

Hope the information is helpful. Please feel free to reply in case you face any other issues with Windows in future.

Windows 10 Feature Update 2004 taking too long to install

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Hi Roger,
I am Sumit, an Independent Advisor and a 3 year Windows Insider MVP here to help.

Windows 10 2004 is currently in seeker mode — if you manually press check for updates it gets downloaded. Are you sure it rolled down automatically to your device?

As it is >1 month since the availability, upgrading right now isn’t a good idea. That’s something I would explain later on, if needed.

In your case, if the data and apps are in large amounts, the update may take time. If you want to cancel it, click Pause updates for 7 days option.

Sumit
Available 6 PM — 8 AM PST

It is always good to include your PC Specs, make and model in the question

Never Call the Phone numbers received in Emails from the Microsoft Community

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Thanks for confirming. If that is the case, you may proceed. Please note that if online phase(which you are currently on), took time, expect more time in the SafeOS phase to complete.

Please keep us posted.

Sumit
Available 6 PM — 8 AM PST

It is always good to include your PC Specs, make and model in the question

Never Call the Phone numbers received in Emails from the Microsoft Community

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So I left it for an hour more last night, and there was no progress, so I paused the updates, then pressed resume (this cancelled the update installation altogether) and went to sleep. I had work today morning so I finished my laptop work first then did the following steps:

• Stopped the services ‘wuauserv’ and ‘bits’ from cmd in administrator mode
• Deleted whatever files were in C:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution folder (This removed past Windows Update records but did not remove any already-installed updates, so it was fine)
• Started the services ‘wuauserv’ and ‘bits’ from cmd in administrator mode
• Cleaned up my registry using Auslogics Registry Cleaner software
• Deleted all data from the temp folder (%temp%)
• Performed a ‘sfc /scannow’ check in cmd in administrator mode, which automatically repaired a few corrupted system files that it detected
• Went back to ‘Windows Update & Security’ settings, rechecked for Windows Updates, at which point it showed me that 2004 feature update is ready to be downloaded and installed, and I obliged.

I left my laptop plugged in, set the ‘turn off display after’ to never, sleep mode to ‘never’, and waited for it to install. I started around 1 pm, and it took until roughly 5 pm for the install percentage to reach 100 (It got stuck again at 94% but after 40 minutes or so it took a direct jump to 97%, then 100% after 15 more minutes). Thankfully, the part where it restars Windows and installs all the update again in safe OS phase did not take much time, and 15 minutes later I was booted up and my desktop was ready.

Bugs I noticed: The fresh boot-up removed my wallpaper, so I had to re-apply it. I use dark system theme, and whenever I open up the file explorer (which I do a lot), the entire explorer window flashes white for less than a second and then shows up in dark mode. It’s very annoying and I am considering between living with this or switching to white mode which I find equally annoying.

Windows 10 update taking long time

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Original Title: Mr

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community. Appreciate your interest in using Windows 10.

I would like to inform you that the download/ upgrade time depends on the age of your device and how it’s configured. Most devices will take about an hour to upgrade once the download is complete. While older devices could take longer, some newer, high performance devices may upgrade faster.

Please refer the link below for more information.

Hope the information is helpful. Feel free to write to us for any other assistance with Windows, we’ll be glad to assist you.

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I would suggest you to Reset Windows update components and place your computer in Clean boot state and try installing the update.

To know how to place the computer in a Clean Boot please follow the below link:

Note: Reset the computer back to Normal Mode once you are done with the troubleshooting by following the section » How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting » from the same article.

How do I reset Windows Update components?

Disclaimer: Important this section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

Hope this information is helpful . Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

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Its not just Windows initial upgrade and update that takes forever, but almost every subsequent Windows 10 update. It is very common for Microsoft to take over your PC for 30 to 60 minutes at least once a week, usually at an inconvenient time. This is on an Intel i7 system with 4gb RAM so its not exactly an old, slow system. Why Microsoft cannot manage their software updates much better I do not know. My guess it that neither do they. Also the ability to schedule your own time for updates no longer works so you have to put up with Microsoft updates when they choose which is often very inconvenient. If the updates were less frequent or much quicker (under 3 minutes) then it would not be so annoying. Also the update process rarely tells the user that an update is in progress. Only occasionally is there a message on the screen that states this. Normally its simply a blue screen and a twiddling ring in the middle. If only Microsoft could at least display a message showing how far through the process the update has reached. As it is the user has no idea whether their pc will be out of commission for 5 minutes or an hour or more. However Microsoft are not known for responding to customer complaints, despite the billions of profit that they make from those same customers. High profit levels seem to be the key driver rather than high quality and responsive customer service. Even when I was a technical support specialist when working for a large British blue chip company I usually found it difficult to get live support from Microsoft, despite the tens of thousands that we paid them every year.

Of course some updates may be essential because Windows has so many holes in it. But as the designers of the OS I cannot understand why the hackers have so many much cleverer programmers to exploit these holes. Surely Microsoft should be able to foresee many more of these holes at the design stage, but this has always been a big weakness in Microsoft products unlike Sun and Apple. Unfortunately Sun is really for commercial users and Apple computers cost much more that Intel and AMD systems so we are stuck with the problem. After so many years of poor design of the MS OS we are unlikely to see any improvement. Having a stranglehold on the market they probably see no gain in being better at design — it would reduce their huge profits and that would not be acceptable.

When it is not holding you up with updates then Windows 10 does seem to work fine and is much better than Windows XP and Vista though not that much of a change on Windows 7.

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