Size of latest Win7 update?

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
20,261
Location
west Texas
Display Name

Display name:
Dave Taylor
My computer has self-scheduled an update for later tonight (got a popup warning).
Also today I got a popup saying I am low on space (um..435 used out of...465?gb)

Action needed to delay update or lots of room?
(I can foresee an update might somehow cripple this laptop)
 
I updated win7 last night and one of them took ages to download, like 20 minutes. What on earth is Microsoft installing on my machine? But it rebooted and all seems to be working fine. I share your angst, I feel that way every time I let Windows update itself. You never know when it's going to break something.
 
Windows 7 updates aren't that big, as it's a "mature" product. Your disk space issue is likely caused by something we've been seeing a lot: giant accumulations of Temp files, mostly in the Windows/temp folder. Sometimes, it's hundreds of Gigs! Some versions/combinations of Win7 seem to have this problem. It's an easy fix, just manually delete everything in that folder. CCleaner will do it, too.
 
Windows 7 updates aren't that big, as it's a "mature" product. Your disk space issue is likely caused by something we've been seeing a lot: giant accumulations of Temp files, mostly in the Windows/temp folder. Sometimes, it's hundreds of Gigs! Some versions/combinations of Win7 seem to have this problem. It's an easy fix, just manually delete everything in that folder. CCleaner will do it, too.

Yep. This has been the case for as long as I can remember. Windows keeps and stores ponderous piles of useless crap, mainly in the form of temp files and useless logs, with no mechanism to automatically delete them when they're no longer needed. Another treasure trove of useless **** are the various caches created by third-party browsers, some of which are set by default to staggering sizes based on a percentage of the drive's size.

A current version of CCleaner usually deletes most of them. For stubborn machines that refuse to let the files be deleted, there are more aggressive methods.

Rich
 
Also ancient copies of restore points.

First thing to do is just run their own tool, Disk Cleanup. They do at least dump some of the most egregious crap with it. Including emptying the Recycle Bin, which is often home to all sorts of useless crap when I sit down to get paid and grit my teeth at a Winderz box.

And nobody asked if you’d done that, which is either a sign they all trust you, or they forgot “first things first”... haha.

(If you come back and tell us you got half the drive back by emptying the Recycle Bin, no... never mind. Do not tell me that if you did, because I would start to wonder if you really should fly airplanes. Hahahaha.) ;)

Standard family computer crap list, off the top of my head:

Run the Microsoft Disk Cleaner.

Uninstall every freaking application they say they don’t use.

Uninstall system features they don’t use.

Clean up and reset the defaults to something sane for Restore Points.

Figure out if Winderz did something stupid with their swap or hibernation space. Slap it around if that stuff is set wrong.

Clean out their Download directory. Teach them to move things they want to keep elsewhere and empty the whole dir regularly. Unless they’re horribly disorganized and beyond hope of ever creating folders or their own filing scheme for anything, in which case just sigh and delete anything that’s easily downloaded again.

Search for large files by file size. After finding sixteen copies of one illlegally downloaded movie, suggest to them that one copy is plenty and said filing system might be a good idea.

Check that they have some sort of antivirus and malware software and make sure it’s been updating.

Check that Windows Update has been working and that it’s set to continue working.

Usually by now I’ve managed to get them back huge amounts of space, the machine is working decently, and I lost interest long ago. Around the second item.

Go find something to drink, preferably alcoholic if not driving, and hope for the further encroachment or tablets that are completely locked down, for their sake. They really shouldn’t have a computer. :)

I’ve had so many Christmases ruined now by “Oh can you look at the computer?” that I’m used to it... oh sure... I’ll be happy to work for eight hours downstairs in your corner basement office while the rest of the family is up here enjoying each other’s company... sounds effing awesome! LOL.
 
Mine was the one I rebuilt with a brand new SSD in 2015 and haven't used much since then so didn't think there was that much garbage on it yet, but I will do the cleaning you suggest.
 
UPDATE FAIL! Computer just sat and sat and sat and sat at 100% complete. Had to reset and the updates attempted to install again and sat at 35% forever. A second reset got the computer to revert all changes. It seems fine now.
 
Mine was the one I rebuilt with a brand new SSD in 2015 and haven't used much since then so didn't think there was that much garbage on it yet, but I will do the cleaning you suggest.

Good luck, we’re all counting on you. ;)
 
I used to work with someone who used the deleted items folder on Outlook as his storage area. So an Ivy League education really didn't help.
 
I used to work with someone who used the deleted items folder on Outlook as his storage area. So an Ivy League education really didn't help.
hahahah I had one of those too.. his mailbox was full, so i dumped his deleted items in outlook... Unhappy user..
 
I got the popup message for it today. I clicked on "remind me tomorrow" or some such option. Tomorrow I will do the same.
 
I used to work with someone who used the deleted items folder on Outlook as his storage area. So an Ivy League education really didn't help.
More common than you think. I have seen people with organized sub-folders there. I am not sure why that seemed like a good idea to them. You always find out about it after an Exchange migration.
 
What’s started this discussion, I am not seeing any large 7 update pending anywhere
 
It is not. It is a laptop that is used hourly.
Popups are offered and fended off.
 
That update is waiting for installation on my computer right now. Guess I'd better hold off.
 
Wow. Google tells me this update fixes an issue where users of SQL Server Reporting Services may not be able to use the scrollbar in a drop-down list.

Good thing you got that fixed!
I didn't. It failed.
 
I didn't. It failed.

I knew that but in the 60 seconds it took me to post my answer I forgot it, because I am old and demented now.:D

Well it WOULD have been good to get that fixed, because you're always trying to use your scrollbar in that drop down list in SQL server, right?
 
I knew that but in the 60 seconds it took me to post my answer I forgot it, because I am old and demented now.:D

Well it WOULD have been good to get that fixed, because you're always trying to use your scrollbar in that drop down list in SQL server, right?
LOL Yea, I suppose so! :) I rarely look at the reasons for the patches. The ones I care the most about are security patches. Windows 10 on my laptop seems to give even less info on the patches sometimes.
 
I have not seen any huge update but this thread got me thinking that my laptop had not updated windows in a while. I tried to check it and it would not check for updates. I had to change when it checked for updates and then return it back to the original setting to get it to check. Checked my other Windows 7 computer and it had the same problem. The last date that both computers checked for updates was back at the first of December.

Our other computer running Windows 10 did not have this problem.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top