Windows Auto Update - when does it check

AU checks for updates whenever you boot up.

However, does it ever check after that - like an hour or two after you
boot up?

 

I just looked through my windowsupdate.log file and yes, it looks like
it does things after you've booted up. I'm not sure why. It doesn't
seem to be on a regular schedule.

Of course it also checks when you shutdown.

 

Richard Fangnail wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> I just looked through my windowsupdate.log file and yes, it looks like
> it does things after you've booted up. I'm not sure why. It doesn't
> seem to be on a regular schedule.
>
> Of course it also checks when you shutdown.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->


AU checks on boot, when awakening from Standby (Sleep) or from Hibernate
modes, and on restarts.
There is a a Default setting for the Automatic Update Detection
Frequency that, IIRC, is 22 hours.
You can get AU to check for updates at anytime by clicking Start > Run
enter the below in the Run line, then click OK or press Enter and wait a
short period of time ( say 5 minutes or so ) to see if any updates are
detected -

wuauclt /detectnow

If this is XP Pro, you can use Group Policy to change the update
detection frequency
Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative
Templates > Windows Update
In the right frame is 'Automatic Updates detection frequency '

" Specifies the hours that Windows will use to determine how long to
wait before checking for available updates. The exact wait time is
determined by using the hours specified here minus zero to twenty
percent of the hours specified. For example, if this policy is used to
specify a 20 hour detection frequency, then all clients to which this
policy is applied will check for updates anywhere between 16 and 20 hours.

If the status is set to Enabled, Windows will check for available
updates at the specified interval.

If the status is set to Disabled or Not Configured, Windows will check
for available updates at the default interval of 22 hours.

Note: The "Specify intranet Microsoft update service location" setting
must be enabled for this policy to have effect.

Note: If the "Configure Automatic Updates" policy is disabled, this
policy has no effect. "


HTH, Richard


MowGreen
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============

 

On Jul 8, 1:35 pm, MowGreen <mowgr...@nowandzen.com> wrote:<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> Richard Fangnail wrote:<!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
> > I just looked through my windowsupdate.log file and yes, it looks like
> > it does things after you've booted up.  I'm not sure why.  It doesn't
> > seem to be on a regular schedule.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
> > Of course it also checks when you shutdown.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>
> AU checks on boot, when awakening from Standby (Sleep) or from Hibernate
> modes, and on restarts.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> MowGreen<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

Mow, thanks for that - is there any possible reason why the wuault.exe
would start in the middle of a session?

Something has been driving up my CPU Usage in the middle of a session
for no reason even when I turned off my antivirus (which updates
sometimes).

 

Richard Fangnail wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> On Jul 8, 1:35 pm, MowGreen <mowgr...@nowandzen.com> wrote:
> <!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
>>Richard Fangnail wrote:
>><!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
>>>I just looked through my windowsupdate.log file and yes, it looks like
>>>it does things after you've booted up. I'm not sure why. It doesn't
>>>seem to be on a regular schedule.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>><!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
>>>Of course it also checks when you shutdown.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>>
>>AU checks on boot, when awakening from Standby (Sleep) or from Hibernate
>>modes, and on restarts.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>
> <!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
>>MowGreen<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>
>
> Mow, thanks for that - is there any possible reason why the wuault.exe
> would start in the middle of a session?
>
> Something has been driving up my CPU Usage in the middle of a session
> for no reason even when I turned off my antivirus (which updates
> sometimes).<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

YW, Richard. You can check what's using the CPU cycles by running
Process Monitor:


wuacult.exe will fire up again if it could not connect with the update
servers on startup, awakening from standby (sleep), etc.

Has the system been able to check for updates automatically ?

I see in another thread in XP General that Firefox is consuming the CPU
cycles. "bad" add-ons that leak memory can cause such behavior.
Too many RSS feeds can also cause this in FF.
Suggest you open Firefox from the Start Menu and choose Mozilla Firefox
(Safe Mode) as that will load it without any add-ons running.

MowGreen
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============

 

On Jul 9, 4:32 pm, MowGreen <mowgr...@nowandzen.com> wrote:<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> Richard Fangnail wrote:<!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
> > On Jul 8, 1:35 pm, MowGreen <mowgr...@nowandzen.com> wrote:<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro--><!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
> >>Richard Fangnail wrote:<!--colorc--><!--/colorc--><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro--><!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
> >>>I just looked through my windowsupdate.log file and yes, it looks like
> >>>it does things after you've booted up.  I'm not sure why.  It doesn't
> >>>seem to be on a regular schedule.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc--><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro--><!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
> >>>Of course it also checks when you shutdown.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc--><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro--><!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
> >>AU checks on boot, when awakening from Standby (Sleep) or from Hibernate
> >>modes, and on restarts.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc--><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro--><!--coloro:darkred--><span style="color:darkred <!--/coloro-->
> >>MowGreen<!--colorc--><!--/colorc--><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
> > Mow, thanks for that - is there any possible reason why the wuault.exe
> > would start in the middle of a session?<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
><!--coloro:green--><span style="color:green <!--/coloro-->
> > Something has been driving up my CPU Usage in the middle of a session
> > for no reason even when I turned off my antivirus (which updates
> > sometimes).<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
>
> YW, Richard. You can check what's using the CPU cycles by running
> Process Monitor:
>
> wuacult.exe will fire up again if it could not connect with the update
> servers on startup, awakening from standby (sleep), etc.
>
> Has the system been able to check for updates automatically ?
>
> I see in another thread in XP General that Firefox is consuming the CPU
> cycles. "bad" add-ons that leak memory can cause such behavior.
> Too many RSS feeds can also cause this in FF.
> Suggest you open Firefox from the Start Menu and choose Mozilla Firefox
> (Safe Mode) as that will load it without any add-ons running.
>
> MowGreen<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

Mow, whenever aucult.exe starts, it's noted in windowsupdate.log, is
that right?

The problem with safe mode is that i need flash working. So if it
never crashes in Safe Mode, it won't help me.

 

Richard Fangnail wrote:
<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
>
> Mow, whenever aucult.exe starts, it's noted in windowsupdate.log, is
> that right?
>
> The problem with safe mode is that i need flash working. So if it
> never crashes in Safe Mode, it won't help me.<!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->

I'm not referring to *Windows Safe Mode*, rather, to opening Firefox
from the Start Menu and choosing
Mozilla Firefox > Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode).
That loads FF with no add-ons, Richard.

And yes, each time the WUA fires up there's a notation if the WU.log


MowGreen [aka Mr. 7 ! aka Señor7Mowment]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============

 

On Jul 14, 10:03 am, MowGreen <mowgr...@nowandzen.com> wrote:

<!--coloro:blue--><span style="color:blue <!--/coloro-->
> And yes, each time the WUA fires up there's a notation if the WU.log
><!--colorc--><!--/colorc-->
Mow, I think today that wuaulct.exe started as usual, went away, and
came back again. Yet there is only the one entry in the log file.

Have you ever heard of that process creating a problem when it starts
up? My FF just crashed again even with no addons, no Javascript. It
was then I noticed that wuauclt was back on.

 

Also, if you go to Internet Explorer and select Windows Update, this
will also start wuauclt.exe.