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I need to to install Windows 7 on an old PC to use some hardware that's unsupported and does not work in later Windows versions. I know Windows 7 itself is no longer supported and understand the implications of that.

I'm looking for a suggested sequence of offline patches I can install to minimize the amount of time the machine is online and the use of online Windows Update, but still bring it up to date with the final set of Windows 7 patches that were publicly released.

I'm guessing that this will have to start with the installation of SP1 (through the "Windows 7 SP1 Download Page" link in Microsoft's instructions is broken); proceed through KB3125574, the May 2016 "convenience rollup"; and end with KB4534310, the last cumulative update for Windows 7. Those pages seems to list a couple other prerequisite updates to the update system itself, however, am I missing anything? I would assume this is a pretty well-understood procedure by many people.

Note after re-opening: I had resubmitted this question because this had been closed as a duplicate. It's since been re-opened, so I'm going to close the new (now duplicate) question (archive) but save my required defensive verbiage here.

Note to eager closers: this is not a duplicate. This question had previously been closed as a duplicate, but the supposed "similar" question asked an entirely different thing (how to resolve a particular Windows Update error), and furthermore the answers only document updates that would patch the machine up to May 2016, not the final update in January 2020. Another question that was offered as similar had exactly the same issues (asking about a Windows Update error, answer only gets the machine up to May 2016).

Since neither of those actually resolve my question fully, and the way the questions were phrased make them poorly discoverable to someone with my question, this question should not be closed as a duplicate.

If you want to mark this as a duplicate, please find me a question that:

  1. Directly asks about updating Windows 7 offline.
  2. Has an answer that provides a sequence of offline updates to get the machine fully-patched to the Jan. 2020 final updates.
Kaypro II
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  • If it is a one-time install, you may consider to install the OS and just use Windows Updates to do its thing. On first run it will probably find like 10 updates, but once you reboot and do another scan, it will find like 130 of them. May need to reboot once or twice after. There are also programs you can use that perform Windows Updates, and they may even be faster, but may also be more confusing. – LPChip Jul 09 '21 at 16:40
  • https://superuser.com/questions/951960/windows-7-sp1-windows-update-stuck-checking-for-updates/1022204#1022204 – Moab Jul 09 '21 at 17:18
  • This should not be closed. The supposed question with the "answer" only has answers that bring you up to 5/16/2016. I'm looking for an answer that brings you up to the last public Windows 7 update. – Kaypro II Jul 09 '21 at 19:34
  • @LPChip I'm trying to avoid that process of reboot, run WU, reboot ad-nauseum. I'd also like to squirrel away the offline updates in case I need them in the future and they are no longer available through WU. – Kaypro II Jul 09 '21 at 21:06
  • @KayproII - You won’t avoid it. Trying to determine the exact correct order of a dozen(s) of patches is impossible – Ramhound Jul 09 '21 at 21:14
  • @Ramhound if I can't avoid it completely I'd like to minimize it as much as possible. – Kaypro II Jul 09 '21 at 21:23
  • [Windows 7 Service Pack 1](https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB976932) is easily found. However, using a Windows 7 SP1 ISO might be easier. *The unnecessary meta commentary is preventing me from spending an hour written up an answer.* – Ramhound Jul 09 '21 at 21:38
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    In the past, PatchMyPC used to do windows update installations. I know there are similar programs dedicated to performing windows updates. You should look into that, but keep in mind, some updates will not be made available to download until you reboot, so a reboot is going to happen. These programs may just speed up things a little, but not sure by how much depending on how healthy your current windows update is, and given it is a fresh install, it should be healthy. – LPChip Jul 10 '21 at 09:22

1 Answers1

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Probably the best source of win 7 patches is using the simplix site (in russian), they regularly update it, and all or most of the tools to update win 7 that I know use it as a source. use the KB numbers in the table to have the sequence you need.

In that site they even have an auto updater called UpdatePack7R2 which will update your system offline, clean the telemetry things and apply the patch to install the win 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU); but personally I prefer to download the hotfixes manually and apply them my self.

There is also this nice tool, Windows-Update-Checker: KUC but it is a little difficult to understand for the first time, but they have a nice guide here, with this tool you can have a list of the sequence of hotfixes needed too. they offer two versions in the download page, one to update until 2020, and another for the ESU updates.

NB: in the simplix site you may see in the change history something like that: 9/21/15 which you will probably think it is of the year 2015, but this is wrong, it actually means 15 of the month 9 of the year 2021.

Badr Elmers
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