Windows 7 Searches and Searches for Updates

Because my HP computer crashed and couldn't recover, I reinstalled Windows 7. (See my previous post). But I still had a big problem!

Windows update couldn't find new updates. It kept saying 'No updates available for this computer'.  Since it was restored to way back in 2015, I knew there had to be updates, a lot of them! But everything I tried just didn't seem to work.

I just couldn't seem to give up that I couldn't fix this problem.

I searched and searched and while I found a lot (and I do mean a lot!) of folks had this problem as well. There were a lot of fixes found in my searching, but none of them worked. I kept getting the same message 'no updates available'.

I tried KB971058, Windows update Troubleshooter for Windows 8.1 Windows 8 and Windows 7.

Fixed several things, but not the one I really needed.

Downloaded Windows update Standalone Installer, now it is 'Searching for updates on this computer'. Searching and searching. I ( think I did this before!) I changed the Internet time server to nist.gov.

I checked services, windows update services was running, windows modules was not, started it.

Finally I just got too frustrated and turned the computer off. Lo and behold, there was over 100 updates waiting to install!

I have no idea which of the many (fixes) made Windows 7 updates finally work, but it is all updated and now donated.

Before I donated this computer I wanted to make sure there were none of my files accessible.

First I uninstalled all the programs and deleted the folders and files.

I created a new profile, logged out of the old profile, logged into the new profile and deleted the old profile. I told Windows to delete all of the old files and folders just to be sure.

Then I ran the cipher command to overwrite all the free space.

Windows 7: Cipher Command - Overwrite Deleted Data in Windows

That took quite a while as the drive was nearly empty, but now I can be reasonable sure my deleted data is gone.

Hopefully someone else will get some good use from this restored (and updated!) computer.