Microsoft Security Downloads

[irban]

Last night I received 4 Microsoft downloads. 2 important and 2 no quite so. I selected the 2 important ones and hit the download button. From that moment until I had finished and switched off it had taken 2 hours and 17 minutes to download these programmes. This happens with all microsoft downloads and is inconvenient as they always arrive at 10.30 at night. Is this the normal amount of time it takes to do this or have I got a problem with my computer. Any advise as what to do would b e appreciated. I am running Windows 7 Home

[Buenchico]

It's not unusual for Windows updates to take ages to download and install. (You could have the best download speed in the world but it doesn't help at all if Microsoft's servers can only upload the files very slowly, as is the case).

I've got Windows Update configured on my desktop so that it lets me know when updates are available but it doesn't download them until I ask it to. (It's perfectly possible to delay updating Windows for days or even weeks; the risks of doing so are incredibly small. I've used some machines for years without ever applying any Windows updates and never had anything nasty happen to them).

If you want to use the same settings as me, click on Start and type 'update' into the search field. Click on 'Windows Update' in the results which appear above. Click on 'Change Settings'. Under 'Check for Updates', select 'Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them'.

[Old_Geezer]

Don't you have to set the broadband as not being unlimited data, or something like that ?

[Buenchico]

O_G:
Windows 10 permits users to set a 'metered connection', which tells the system that the user has a download limit or is paying 'per MB' for their data use. That results in only the most critical Windows updates being downloaded, which is useful if (say) the machine only has a very small hard drive (or SSD), which could otherwise quickly run out of space when lots of Windows updates are installed onto it.

However that's not going to help Irban, as he's using Windows 7, which doesn't have the 'metered connection' option available to users.