Tip of the day – Windows Update fixes for 7 and 8.1

Back in the good old days (aka a few years ago) Windows Update tended to be something that just… worked. You’d take a fresh Windows install, pop it through the update process and after a bit of chugging you’d get a fully patched OS.

Recently Microsoft seem to have made a bit of a mess of things and I’ve spent far too much time forcing recalcitrant machines to do what should be a simple task.

Hopefully once the cumulative updates start rolling everything into the monthly patch cycle this post may become irrelevant. Until then here’s the quick way to persuading a Windows 7 / 8.1 machine through the Update process…

High CPU hotfix

Install this one first if you’re faced with a particularly out-of-date installation otherwise you’ll be stuck for days “searching for updates” while your CPU goes crazy (100% utilisation) for very little return…

Windows 7 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3102810
Windows 8 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3102812

Windows Update Agent

Next install this to update your updating software in order to download new updates (!)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/949104

Reset Windows Update Agent script

Sometimes Windows Update still won’t work in spite of the patches above so run this script from TechNet to reset the Windows Update subsystem in case something has gone awry

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Reset-Windows-Update-Agent-d824badc

Round trip limit exceeded

Despite all of the above Windows Update can still fail because of a hard-coded limit in how it talks to WSUS (this only applies to managed Windows desktops rather than home users). In which case you need to take advice from this song…

“you can get it if you really want but you must try, try and try, try and try… you’ll succeed at last”

Basically just keep clicking the retry button until WSUS gets through enough trips to serve you all the updates Windows needs.

Ref: http://trentent.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/wsus-clients-fail-with-warning-exceeded.html
Ref: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/sus/2008/09/18/wsus-clients-fail-with-warning-syncserverupdatesinternal-failed-0x80244010/

You may also be able to speed things up by cleaning up your WSUS server, which can be aided via this very useful script

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/103094-automate-wsus-cleanup

or this one…

https://community.spiceworks.com/scripts/show/2998-adamj-clean-wsus

Now that’s sorted you can make yourself a cup of tea and wait for that progress bar to crawl across the screen! Will be interesting to see how the cumulative update process goes but if it means an easier way of rolling an out-of-date machine up with one single download then it’ll have some benefits for convenience albeit at the expense of granular control… swings and roundabouts I guess…

image credit Christiaan Colen
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132889348@N07/20013670043

Tools of the trade

Because the list of all the best little tools and utilities only gets larger over time I’ve decided to take it out of my head and starting writing them out on a post here.

Works well for me as there’s somewhere to refer back to and works well for anyone reading this to discover something very handy that may not yet have crossed your path.

I’ve tried to split into categories so skip to the one that’s most relevant. The list is by no means exhaustive so I’ll keep adding more as I remember or discover them 🙂

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Hobbyist

like to create your own electronics? Look no further…

• Arduino – development environment for all your hobbyist electronic needs
  https://www.arduino.cc/
• Fritzing – free, open source breadboard, schematic and PCB designer
  http://fritzing.org/

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Multimedia

tools for video, audio etc.

• Audacity – open source audio editing
  http://audacityteam.org/
• ColorPix – quickest and easiest tool I’ve used for grabbing colour codes from your screen
  https://www.colorschemer.com/colorpix_info.php
• CutePDF – free PDF printer
  http://www.cutepdf.com/
• F.lux – fantastic tool for reducing eye strain at night
  https://justgetflux.com/
• Gliffy – online flowchart and diagramming tool
  https://www.gliffy.com/
• HandBrake – open source video converter
  https://handbrake.fr/
• Image Resizer – add image resize option to your Windows context menu
  https://imageresizer.codeplex.com/
• MediaPortal – missing Windows Media Center? Here’s the next best thing…
  http://www.team-mediaportal.com/
• Pixabay – free stock images
  https://pixabay.com/
• Pixlr – online image editor
  https://pixlr.com/
• SANEWinDS – Windows SANE client for networked scanners
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/sanewinds/files/
• Unsplash – photos for everyone
  https://unsplash.com
• VLC Player – open source media player
  http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.en_GB.html

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Network & Server

Local and online utilities for your day-to-day networking needs

• delProf2 – clean up inactive profiles on shared machines
  https://helgeklein.com/free-tools/delprof2-user-profile-deletion-tool/
• CentralOps – online network tools, recommended for their domain dossier service
  http://centralops.net/co/
• MFCMapi – method of last resort for recovering emails in Office 365
  https://mfcmapi.codeplex.com/
• MXToolbox – check DNS records, blacklists from one web interface
  http://mxtoolbox.com/
• Namebench – use this Google tool to find the fastest performing local DNS servers for your Internet connection
  https://code.google.com/p/namebench/
• Netalyzr – diagnose internet connection and performance issues
  http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/
• PuTTY – SSH \ Telnet client
  http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
• Reg2GPP – convert Registry files into ready-made Group Policy Preferences
  http://www.runecasters.com.au/reg2gpp
• SQL Heartbeat – quick and easy graphical diagnosis of SQL processes and performance
  http://www.sqlsolutions.com/products/heartbeat/index.html
• SSL Server Test (Qualys SSL Labs) – test your web server’s certificates for cipher strength etc.
  https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/
• WinSCP – SFTP, SCP and FTP client
  https://winscp.net/eng/index.php
• Wifi Analyzer (Android) – view signal strength and track down location of your wireless APs
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&hl=en_GB
• Wireshark – packet capture and traffic analysis
  https://www.wireshark.org/

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Scripting

Development tools and reference

• AutoIT – flexible and free script development environment
  https://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/
• Notepad++ – code editor with colour coding support for multiple languages
  https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
• PowerShell to EXE converter – compile PowerShell scripts into standalone executables
  https://ps2exe.codeplex.com/
• ss64.com – command line reference for all the common script languages (with examples)
  http://ss64.com/

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System

An assortment of tools for your local machine

• 7-Zip – file archive and extraction utility
  http://www.7-zip.org/
• CCleaner – clear junk from your PC quickly and easily
  https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
• elevate – Command-Line UAC Elevation Utility
  http://code.kliu.org/misc/elevate/
• Display Driver Uninstaller – clean up AMD and nVidia drivers
  http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
• gParted – open source partition editor
  http://gparted.org/
• HDD Raw Copy – copy drives sector by sector for a pure clone
  http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool/
• HP USB disk format tool – formats any USB drive where others won’t
  http://filehippo.com/download_hp_usb_disk_storage_format_tool/
• ImgBurn – free tool to build and burn ISO images
  http://www.imgburn.com/
• MD5 Checksum Utility – the easiest MD5 verification tool I’ve used
  https://raylin.wordpress.com/downloads/md5-sha-1-checksum-utility/
• LinuxLive USB creator – create live media for almost any distro
  http://www.linuxliveusb.com/
• MalwareBytes Anti-Malware – the go-to tool for cleaning up spyware
  https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/
• NirSoft utilities – a collection of handy tools including ShellExView & NirCmd
  http://www.nirsoft.net/
• Path Length Checker – run this on your shares to check for long path problems before migrations
  https://pathlengthchecker.codeplex.com/
• Redo Backup – free hard drive imaging tool for backup and restore
  http://redobackup.org/
• Process Monitor – troubleshoot registry, file system and processes in real-time
  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb896645.aspx
• TCPView – watch network port activity to diagnose TCP and UDP connection issues
  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb897437.aspx
• Virtual CloneDrive – mount ISO files as a virtual drive letter
  http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html
• WinDirStat – visual representation of what’s eating up all the space on your drive(s)
  https://windirstat.info/
• Windows ISO images – rebuild your machine with clean installation media directly from Microsoft
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/home

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Web

Web development tools

• Font Matcherator – need to find the original font when you only have an image? This is the tool for you
  https://www.fontspring.com/matcherator
• Fiddler4 – debug web traffic to see what’s loading (or not) on your sites
  http://www.telerik.com/fiddler
• FireBug – still the best CSS inspector despite improvements to Chrome’s built-in tools
  http://getfirebug.com/
• SoapUI – debug SOAP requests for API testing
  http://www.soapui.org/
• WAMPServer – run a complete web and database server locally on your machine (for testing and dev only!)
  http://www.wampserver.com/en/

Disclaimer: although I’ve used all the tools in the list and recommend them due to their effectiveness and usually zero cost be aware that they may not stay that way forever! Keep a local copy of any program you find especially useful and always watch installers carefully in case the developer decides to go down the adware-supported route at some point in the future. Forewarned is forearmed…

Image credit: Icons8 https://icons8.com