A client has a collection of servers that are running 2008r2, 2012 and 2016

Is it just me or are the server 2016 updates just slow?! I had updated all the 2008r2 and 2012 ones in about an hour, yet the 2016 servers took the best part of a day to update and install!

what's with that?

servers took the best part of a day to update and install!

what's with that?

Not sure what "best part of day" is time-wise but probably not normal, may need to check log files and or event logs for clues.

Regards, Dave Patrick ....
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows Server] Datacenter ManagementDisclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees, and confers no rights.

servers took the best part of a day to update and install!

what's with that?

Not sure what "best part of day" is time-wise but probably not normal, may need to check log files and or event logs for clues.

Regards, Dave Patrick ....
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows Server] Datacenter ManagementDisclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees, and confers no rights.

All here are correct; Windows 2016 Server updates are extremely slow to install.

Do we need to install each update separately?

That negates any automation doing separate updates.

Maybe the answer is to reduce the size of each furture update and not try to do HUGE CUMULTIVE updates.

This issues has been raised in many Windows 2016 forums; not just this forum.

Do we need to install each update separately?

The updates are now cumulative. When you install the latest update only the delta updates (from previous cumulative) would be applied. I don't have problems with any of servers here both physical and virtual.

Hey bubba, We know what cumulative means but the issue is that the cumulative updates are so freekin large that it takes forevere to install even on a new all flash drive server (virtual or physical). Updates need to be made smaller so this does not happen. It does not matter if WSUS is used or not; it is the length of time it takes a cumulative update to install on Windows 2016 server that is the problem.

Microsoft seems to continue to GO BACKWARD and not forward when it comes to development. Billions of dollars are spent for licensing of MS enterprise products so we deserve better.

We're experiecing the same issue on our 2016 servers. All flash or not, it is extremely slow. It gets stuck on "Preparing installation of updates" at 10% for what seems like an eternity. I'm afraid to update my new servers because the long downtime that affects our users.

Brand new 2016 Domain Controllers choking for 30-60 minutes before you can press the reboot-button to make it go offline... I have a feeling our organization will want to behead me everytime I need to update our servers.

Another "me too" here regarding the performance of updating Windows Server 2016. I did notice this whilst first creating templates for these machines, but brushed it off. But sat here applying the following updates to a very clean / vanilla deployment of Windows Server 2016 with Desktop Experience:

2017-08 Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4035631)

2017-10 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-Based Systems (KB4041691)

So far it's been running for an HOUR, and no idea how much longer left to run. Not sure if it's just the fact that the cumulative update process obscures how many actual updates are being installed (which, in and of itself I'm not particularly fond of.. but that's for another thread) but it does seem painfully slow. Yeah, sure this is a small VM (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM) but we have hundreds of Windows Server 2012 R2 machines of a similar spec which will rattle through their updates at a considerably faster pace.. this slow installation does seem to be a very noticeable behaviour in Windows Server 2016.

Edit

Updates finished installing - took about an hour and ten minutes. Clicking on restart took a further 11 minutes (almost to the second) to be returned to the login screen. So almost an hour and a half to update a clean / application free Windows Server 2016 image with two updates. Really?

Hi,

We have also extremely slow installation for Windows 2016 Server updates. KB4048953 was taking more than 40 minutes and the reboot was 5-10 minutes.

/SaiTech

Have you check the windows update logs?

www.sevenitblog.com

Dude, of course we're checking the windows update logs. If you read between the lines here, it is professionals complaining who have experience with patching other OSesand we are comparing thatwith the relative performance of deploying these updates.

The robot that's just sitting here saying "...you can post your suggestion/feedback via Windows Server - General Feedback forum" is not helping either.

For what it's worth, I too am having serious performance problems with installing patches on freshly-built 2016 servers. I have the same performance problem if I install the first ones from Windows Update, and then try and deploy the next month's via SCCM.

I'm literally sitting here looking at UpdatesDeployment.log tell me that:

...after the install task was kicked off at 22:31, and I'm looking at that log at 23:03. The machine is not oversubscribed in RAM, CPU or disk I/O.

...Oh look, it had failed after half an hour, with CBS.log saying Client aborted the install.

Even with the maximum run time set to 60 min on the package, as it was when it was first deployed. Still at 20% complete according to UpdatesDeployment. The majority do succeed (it's true that this server may have a machine policy refresh problem, maybe), but after taking at least an hour

It may be true that only the delta updates actually get INSTALLED out of the cumulative packages. However, the time to download these mega-packages and then presumably check each component to see if it's required is not at all efficient.

I like the idea of having cumulative update packages so that you can deploy them to new servers and be sure that no un-superseded update that was in a deployment group from 3 years ago will be missed. But only as an option, and really, only if they're able to install efficiently.

I would like to sign up for every line in your message!

This new Updated Policy for Windows Server 2016 is just awful. IT Corporation like Microsoft should spend a LOT MORE TIME testing all new features and updates BEFORE publishing them.

I'm currently sitting for more than 1 hour updating latest WS 2016 build with more than 96 GB RAM and on SSD disks! These Preparing for Install takes forever!

I really hope that Microsoft support engineers will see this thread and forward to appropriate specialist to fix this nonsense!

I would like to weigh in also. I have an environment with many hundreds of Server OS's2008, 2012, 2016 and many variants thereof, but it is only the Windows 2016 servers that seriously feel like a huge step backwards for inclusion into an enterprise environment.

The interface is inferior for 2016-- in no way at all do the downloaded Windows Updates reflect accurately as to the true download status of the Windows Updates files in Server 2016. For example, with this new "Windows 10" window, the download will be stuck at 11% for an hour, then at 45% for another 30 minutes or so, and then quite often complete with an error status of "We couldn't install some updates because the PC was turned off", when in fact the server was never turned off.

Simplicity is great in a *consumer* UI if your end-user is not that technically oriented. This new "simple" interface is a nightmare for admins like me that care about knowing simple things such as: What is the correct percentage of the file currently being downloaded? How large is the file, and how much space is being occupied by the download? Where is the xxMB of xxMB currently downloaded dialog at? Why in the world did the development team think it was a good idea to replace all of the working Windows Updates parameters that admins used to have access to with an "SCONFIG" console that has to be invoked via Powershell? Seriously, did you fire every single project manager and UI specialist you have?

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Server 2016 is buggy, flaky, and a HUGE step backwards in almost all aspects of interoperability so far even in terms of comparison to Windows Server 2008. I'm sorry if this sounds very anecdotal and ranty, but I'm expected to deploy some new Server 2016 servers that have me literally sitting on my hands while I deal with this new dips&*t update system that takes five times longer to update and provides me with hardly any feedback as to what is going on with live updates.

At this point my preference remains for deploying 2012 R2 servers, because 2016 is really not ready for prime time. I understand that yes, I have ways of figuring out what is going on via Perfmon, Event Logs,Task Manager, Powershell, etc... but PLEASE do not make me use a dozen tools just because you don't want to write a nice interface wrapper for Windows Updates. I should be doing real, actual work right now rather than endless troubleshooting this Server 2016 that should still be in RC stage.

I completely agree. The time it takes to install updates in 2016 is unbelievable. I have HV hosts that take 30 minutes to reboot and get their guests back online after applying an update. That is after waiting an hour for the update to apply. THEN some systems come up and want to apply the update AGAIN. It wasn't applied the first freaking time? That leads to more downtime and lost sleep.

I have to say this Slowdown with 2016 updates is incredibly inconvenient - A Hyper-v cluster that used to take a few hours to update in 2012R2, is now taking me a whole weekend to update in 2016.

The Fact that it also applies Cumulative updates one after the other is bonkers. Apply Novembers CU - reboot - Decembers CU is waiting to be updated now. Why didn't it just apply the December CU in the first place??? Or are they not really Cumulative despite the name?

Hi,

Have you tried to disable the Defender Real-Time Protection, for a test (Or other AV RTP)?

/SaiTech

Every Windows 2016 Server that we have deployed is taking over an hour to install any MS updates. This is true for new installations that have nothing on them but the Windows OS. All hosts have plenty of RAM/CPU no third party software interfering. The downloads of the MS updates is quick, installing is not. All other Windows OS versions we have are quick to install comparative to Windows 2016.

Does anyone have a case open with support looking at this?

Regards,

John

Hi,

Is there any one how have tested this with RTP?
Have you tried to disable the Defender Real-Time Protection, for a test (Or other AV RTP)?

Does anyone have a case open with support looking at this?

We have had and have MS support case. It is a slow process, and the full story is not revealed yet. And this is such case that is Microsoft supports weakest point (spanning different support team).I can do understand it is complex, but there is quite many with the same issue, so there most be some pattern to dig in to.

For the moment we talking with the defender support team.

Our Servers 2016 VMs is on Server 2012 Hyper-V host, on server 2012 R2 SoFs cluster. But we even seeslowinstallation on physical servers. We nowuse to put 60 minutesmax runtime for Windows Server 2016 cumulative in SCCM, but is also limit the maintenace windows. So it is a puzzle to get Everything to work, and for a system administrator all thehassles take away your precious time!

Oh man. I'm another "Me Too" as these updates are crazy slow. It's been 45 minutes and "Getting Windows Ready. Don't Turn Off Computer" is still displaying. Trying to spin up a new machine to replace a failing DNS server and this is not helpful.

Please reduce the update packages Microsoft. This makes it nearly impossible to get things online quickly. I have no idea where the server is in the update process or how much longer I'll have to wait.

Licenses are getting more expensive, servers require more resources, and updates are slower. Linux is looking like a better option to this. Please fix it.

Frustrating!

I'm stunned this still isn't resolved going on 9 months now... I installed 6 VMs spanning 3 hosts. The hosts are 2016 Core Server and the VMs are 2016 Standard. These are all SSD storage machines with 64GB RAM. The smallest of windows updates takes FOREVER on all of them. I just rebooted after installing one of the 02-2018 CU's (KB4077525)on a VM and the "getting windows ready" screen and such is insane. On a machine that normally boots in under a minute, that was an 8 minute reboot, on top of the 30 min update install time.

If it helps narrow it down, the Server Core machines take just as long (even with VMs offline) and they aren't running any AV solution.

Something definitely isn't right.

Previous 2008R2 servers knock through updates like normal without issues.

If we're talking about using the Settings > Update & Security menu, instead of WSUS, then yes, W2016 does feel much, much slower to patch.

My workaround is to use SCONFIG instead. It may be all in my head, but it does feel like W2016 patch faster that way, and with less errors.

The problem for me is the damn tiworker this tool it sucks so hard always has since win vista, waiting for 4h to install 3 updates after clean install of server 2016 v dec2017 frm msdn and still its on 30% the updates are KB890830 kb405379 and KB4049065 and think its stuck on the first

the program is porb. scanning every cluster of my drive in low level

I'm with everybody, I just install a 2012R2 server from scratch with office on it and made all of the update during the time the ........... Cumulative update hang on my 2016 server I'm so tire of this.

WHY

WHY

WHY

Why everything is so slow!!!!!Now I hate patching tuesday!!!

We find the same - brand new install of windows 2016 19/mar/2018 - 2 processor Xeon with 144mb and mirrored 10k disc.. and first security tues patch - system sat at about 20% for over an hour... then jumps up to 70% again sits for 30-40 minutes - then reboots and takes another 30-40 minutes "applying updates"

All this time CPU averages 5-10%, memory use 3% and discs not showing great activity... So Microsoft - what poor code have you written, that takes so long to do so little?

I tried to update my template image today. It's non-domain joined vanilla install, and grabs the updates from the internet.

At 9:10 I started checking for updates.

At 10:17 The system said it needed to reboot, and went to the blue screen that says not to power off.

At 11:25 the system finally completed the reboot.

This is a esx VM on brand new Nutanix hardware. The cluster is extremely under-populated because it's a target for DR emergencies.

This update process is messed up and needs to be addressed as a top priority.

I also just can't stop being surprised seeing how some features went into the final release of Windows Server 2016. And extermely slow Windows Updates is unfortunately just one of those things. Certain design decisions are indeed unbelievable to be seen in a server OS.

As many here I also regulary do VM template updates in different environments and it's always been a pain.

I too just waited 45 minutes for one update which is just ridiculous. I was under the impression that Technet was monitored by Microcrap employees, guess not.

Same here. We ended up disabling updates for win server 2016, it just takes too long and renders the server useless for hours which is exactly what we do not want in a server environment.

Not to mention the black screen after updates, broken firewall policies and so om. What a joke ! Shame on you MS!

IT IS 2018 AND MS STILL CANT HAVE A SERVER THAT RUNS 99.99% OF THE TIME.

Lots of complaints, and no solutions. Thank you Microsoft!

And yes, I'm sitting in this myself. Quite frustrating.

Same here.

Checked for updates ok, downloaded ok, set it off to shutdown as I need to install 2nd virtual HDD and its installing the updates and has been for almost an hour.

Same here, updates on 2016 are taking for hours and most times they are failing and you have to retry them several times.

Sometimes reboots are solving the problem, sometimes not.

Having the same issue, but our server seems to be much much slower than most of the reports here.
Using a Hyper-V 2016 Core Host, with 64 GB of Ram, 4 Server 2016 VM's are running( does seem slightly faster if I stop all VM's )

Checked for updates at: 8:30am
Found 3 Updates: 2018-05 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems(KB4103720)
2018-05 Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4132216)
Definition Update for WIndows Defeneder Antivirus - KB2267602

Started Download: 8:35am
It started Installing: 8:45am
It is now 2:12 PM and it is still installing!I see the Windows Modules Installer Worker using 5-6% CPU and 220 MBof RAM this whole time.I have found I have to let this run all night and it still doesn't complete. I finally just restart the server, and sometimes it does the update, most times I have to start all over again, check and start the install and see the same updates again.

If it is failing or having trouble it would be nice to know, all the SConfig shows is "Installing Updates...."
No percentage, no error if it is hung.

I have two old physical 2008 servers, one SBS 2008, updates and reboot complete in 20-30 minutes max.

I with everyone else here, updating in Server 2016 is terrible.

Hello everybody, this is really month by month worst! What is the solution if any????

I have 2 windows 2016 Servers intalled under Vsphere (thank god it's only 2) both take hours over hours to complete updates, what's the deal with this and when will we have a fix MS?

I'm honestly considering downgrading to 2012, but It's just a lot of work, please provide a fix for this.

Regards.

Server 2016 has been so bad for updates. Really slow and unpredictable

The more I'm deploying the worse the monthly update process is getting.

I'm also cautious to deploy any more 2016.

Seems like Microsoft has gone backwards with this.

Your killing the sleep of sysadmins

Another "same here" - It now takes us the best part of 4 hours to update 1 host and 4 VMs running Server 2016. Absolutely ridiculous.

Upvote to help get the story posted on /.

https://slashdot.org/submission/8244004/windows-server-2016-has-an-updating-problem

We are all trying to make you understand, that this is a general problem. There is not much else to say about it. Windows server 2016 patching is just EXTREMELY slow in ANY environment compared to previous versions of Windows server.

It does not matter whether the operating system is installed on brand new out of the box top notch bare metal hardware, or on a VM runningin some environment.

If you install Windows server 2012 R2 on the same hardware/VM, you can do all of your everyday patching in a fraction of the time.

It is sad - and annoying :-(

I just installed the evaluation version of Microsoft Server 2016 Standard on an SSD drive without using a virtual drive, i.e. it has the whole SSD to itself. Twice I interrupted the update process while it warned me not to stop the computer. The update process recovered. As I am using DUAL BOOT, I can access the same drives from Windows 10.

I then unzipped an Intel Ethernet driver package for all operating systems while logged in to Windows Server 2016. IT WAS SO SLOW IT EVEN STOPPED AND WAITED OCCASIONALLY. It took maybe 5 minutes to unpack. I rebooted Windows 10 and checked the SSD with Samsung Magician. Status: GOOD. No issues. So I deleted the unzipped folders and unzipped them again using Windows 10 (on the same SSD that Windows Server uses): it took maybe 5 seconds.

My point: as I am able to compare the same SSD hardware using two different operating systems, I can confirm that under Windows Server 2016 it can be incredibly slow. All Windows Server Updates have been applied and the OS is bare - I have installed nothing but a couple of drivers and only enabled the Wireless LAN feature (as it is only for testing).

If I have caused this, the only possible explanation is that it is caused by a driver. Internet has masses of Windows ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10 drivers but Windows Server drivers are rare. Besides Windows Server 2016 does not find them either via Ethernet.

Mark me down as another member of the "windows 2016 isn't very good" brigade.

Updates are forever failing on my server. It is a terminal server and there are two updates that i have tried to install manually and automatically via WU and it just fails. not for any reason, it just fails.

windows server 2016 simply isn't very good and MS need to do something about it.

It's the same here.

I can only apply Updates on sundays now in non productive times.

Windows Updates Need forever for downloading and installing Updates.

But even after that, when trying to reboot it takes sometimes several Hours until

Windows Server getting up again.

Stuck at "Getting Windows Ready, don't turn of Computer"

It is completely independent whether with wsus or without.

Also Independent from VM or hardcore Server.

As I can see here, this has been an issue for over a year now.

I would lose my Job if I did not care About a Topic for a year…

+ This is the 2018-June Update... seems not be solved yet.

When will Microsoft wake up and solve the Problem?

Alternatively, you are welcome to join me on Sundays and apply Updates....

It's the same here. …

almost a year later … 1 + 1/2 hours just to restart my small server, with no feedback at all

Just another frustrated updater of Server 2016. Just sits at "Preparing to install updates 1%" for well into an hour. Installing on an Azure VM at 12:45 AM EST. I feel like I'm running Vista...but even that was faster.

Come on Microsoft.

One thing that has helped (a lot) with reliability was to add an exclusion for onaccess AV Scanning for the Software Distribution folder in c:\windows.

Still its not great but better than it was.

Installing 05-2018 update took over an hour on a high performance ESX hosted VM, until the first step in windows finished. The following reboot then took so incredibly long (again over an hour), showing CPU but no disk activity that I finnaly reset the VM. As expected, the update failed but at least the system was in production again.

The Server 2016 Windows update mechanism is pure crap. Thanks MS that update / maintenance windows became a long time of beeing unproductive, watching my servers doing something called Windows Update that MS development is not fixing or improving.

I would like to add what is hopefully some relief for others out there. I agree the cumulative patches for Server 2016 are painful and our Server 2012 R2 machines will install a dozen updates before 2016 will install one. I have found something that appears to have helped a bit.

We run a separate solution for Malware and AV protection, so I removed Windows Defender Features and the 'preparing to install updates' stage does not seem to take quite as long now.

I realize this may not be a option for everybody but at least it's something while we wait for MS to acknowledge there is an issue and fix it.

Best of luck!

JT

same here, just installed theKB4345418 for 2016 and still not ready after 1 1/2 hours still not ready ( 2 CPU Machine )

Windows 2012 server took 5 minutes to install ???

should we in future have maintenance windows of at least 4 hours ?

Short update on this, this morning I updated a identical server with windows defender disabeld and update time was as following

20 minutes installing before reboot

22 minutes reboot until logon screen

18 minutes cleanup processing ( TIworker, disk cleanup )

This was almost 40 minutes shorter in time as first server, was willing to upload a picture but am not allowed ( account validation )

But why is tiworker process running as normal like all other processes ? a lot of problems would be solved if this would run with priority below normal as it would not compete for cpu with higher priority, yes it would take longer but who cares ?

This solution may not apply to your case but I also had a case of very slow (0% download for extended lengths of time if not always) updates on Windows 2016.

Our environment is behind a proxy, and doing updates via Windows Update for versions prior to 2016 works just fine. We are used to having our servers having a proxy defined in Internet Explorer and no proxy defined in Netsh/Proxycfg.

After long hours of troubleshooting on a 2016 server I tried importing Internet Explorer settings into Netsh (Command line: netsh winhttp import proxy ie) and downloads finally started working and the update process completed without a problem.

So in our case it boils down to a Windows Update Agent change regarding proxy usage starting from 2016.

Another frustrated Administrator.

I'm building some new Hyper-V Machines. dual prox, 12 core, 256GB of memory on a hardware stripe with all flash drives, and connected via dual 10GB network cards. Maybe not the beefiest of hardware out there, but it should be able to tear through a windows update quickly.

I kicked off windows updates and ~45 minutes later, windows update went from preparing to download to you have no updates available. I restarted and it clearly applied Windows updates and checked again when it came back up -- more updates available. Instead of being hung up at preparing to download, it's now hanging at preparing to install... I've got no idea how much longer this is going to take, but I'm clearly not going to be able to finish up this task today!

I've been patching a lot of machines laterly and I've noticed that a Cumulative Update is downloaded and installed for 2018-05 (KB4103720), and after thats done, it downloads one for July. Shouldn't it just need one cumulative update and then be done?

I really wish i didnt buy this server or at least had the option of having it come with 2012 r2 instead of 2016. A yearago when i bought this, i was scratching my head because it was slow and with age it got even slower. Keep in mind we are using this as a basic file server, no vm, nothing else.

Updates take forever, and now apps on the desktop also take forever to launch. We use backupassist and it can take up to 30 minutes just to launch the admin console.

Meanwhile, the 6 yold server we retired is running circles around our very expensive 2016 server.

FIX THIS PLEASE!!!!!!

Sign me up as someone who's experiencing this as well. Utterly ridiculous

The workaround is that I have to install it during the day and schedule it to reboot at 1AM and HOPE it's back up and running by 4AM

One thing that has helped (a lot) with reliability was to add an exclusion for onaccess AV Scanning for the Software Distribution folder in c:\windows.

Still its not great but better than it was.

BINGO man. This is a design problem and it needs to be changed. On hour 3 on a Brand new Dell Server with2018-08 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4343884).

That's right - hour three on a 1.3GB update package. It's been on "100% complete working on features" for another 30min. I don't even have any roles or features installed yet.

BROKEN

Hi,

Have you tried to disable the Defender Real-Time Protection, for a test (Or other AV RTP)?

---

/SaiTech

Okay, so i just finished updating a 2008 R2 terminal server (with Office 2016) with 26 updates, in under 20 minutes (including download of the updates).
Lets compare to a Server 2016.

Server 2016 terminal server with Office 2016 (4 haswell CPU cores, all SSD SAN, 16GB RAM)
Goal is to patch the server with the CU from marts (03).
Time: 17:45 - Just pressed 'Check for updates'
Time: 17:48 - Pressed 'Install updates'
Time: 18:07 - Pressed 'Restart'
Time: 18:31 - Server is back up, searching for new updates (just to be sure), all goodNot horrible but still very slow. But the worst part is no usable status whilst Windows Update is installing.

Hi,How things are going there on this issue?Please let me know if you would like further assistance.Best Regards,
Eve Wang

---

It seems to be getting worse.2018-08 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4343884)is a 3-4 hour update on a brand new fast server with nothing but the OS installed It's great that the experience ends with a message that it is "working on features 100% complete Do not turn your computer off" for another hour just for kicks. Did I mention that there are no roles or features even installed yet on this brand new server? So let me ask you, how is this issue going on your side in publicly recognizing that there is a reproducible problem that everyone is having rather than trying to pretend there is no issue?

Getting really bored of seeing this.

I could not agree more with all comments here about the slowness. On multiple occasions I have installed Win2016 on a brand-spanking new fast machine, then getting it updated with especially KB4343887 followed by KB4343884 is unbelievably slow, like installing WinXP RTM and then getting it patched up...

I have done the same with virtual instances, same issue. It feels like we are back in the year 2001.

The first message in this thread was dated July 17th, 2017. After reading the whole thread several times to make sure I am not missing anything, I've come to an inescapable conclusion. MS simply doesn't care.

I too have extremely slow updates on Windows Server 2016. No issues of note in the message logs, just plain slow. Eight processors, sixteen cores and during the update process, usually only one of the cores at a time shows any sort of significant load during the entire update process.

This is a level of incompetence and/or indifference on the part of windows update developers for well over a year now that really calls for a complete purge of that team and a hiring of competent individuals.

I don't really care if this message gets deleted or not. I'm only one of thousands, perhaps millions of system administrators that are experiencing this problem. It's inexcusable on every level.

Get it right or move out of the way and let someone who can do it. Microsoft is a juggernaut, but nothing is forever, and the longer you don't care, the more you endanger your own livelihood through your own incompetence.

This is now really just silly. More than a year of slow updating. We have production servers 2016, 2012 r2, 2008 r2 and just 2016 has problems with updates. It takes 1-2 hours per server to update monthly update. It stops at preparing updates, then few times on some random percentage, and then it takes forever shutting down. After reboot if you are unlucky, you have to wait long on black screen.

It does work though, if you wait long enough. And it is fast with some others smaller updates though, like defender. But every other server version we use is way faster, few minutes, up to 10 minutes for the whole process with reboot.

We have all kind of setups of 2016, all from HyperV hosts to many types of virtual servers. With antiviruses, without, production, testing... every single 2016 server is slow on updating. It is painful for admin to keep these up to date.

I would really like some explanation for why is this happening.

Another "me too"!

Stand-Alone Hardware, fresh install Server 2016 Standard (2 x CPU E5-2620 v4 @ 2.10GHz, 16 Cores, 64GB RAM, 2 x 480GB SSDs RAID1), getting updates from our local WSUS.KB4462917 from 2018-10 takes56,57 minutes from clicking on "check for updates" until OS isrebooted. It makes no difference, if updates are installed directly via Windows Update or manually...

Is it possilble to get some kind of useful Information from Microsoft concerning slow 2016 Server updates?

The next round of patches, I'm going to try setting all the web related services to disabled, reboot, try installing the updates and see what happens. Just seems like there is contention with something running because I'll watch perfmon and not see hardly any activity on cpu, disk, memory, or network while Windows Update is stuck at 30-40% for 45 minutes.

So after an hour and twenty minutes for this one web server to patch, Windows update reports there were some problems (ss below). Attempt two took right at an hour and was finally successful. What I find strange is that while watching the DHCP server patch... err, sit at 30% for about an hour... just as I see the web server reboot, the DHCP server suddenly jumps to 100% and prompts to restart. What the hell is going on here??

Another "me too"!

Stand-Alone Hardware, fresh install Server 2016 Standard (2 x CPU E5-2620 v4 @ 2.10GHz, 16 Cores, 64GB RAM, 2 x 480GB SSDs RAID1), getting updates from our local WSUS.KB4462917 from 2018-10 takes56,57 minutes from klicking on "check for updates" until OS isrebooted. It makes no difference, if updates are installed directly via Windows Update or manually...

Is it possilble to get some kind of useful Information from Microsoft concerning slow 2016 Server updates?

Just to add my two cents worth.

Running a Windows 2016 server on a VM box with 6 vCPUs and 24GB RAM. Installed KB4462917 and rebooted the server which took 10-15 minutes. Right after the server came up I started installing 2018-10 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (KB4462928).

After it finished downloading and unpacking and 'installing' the 1.3GB(!) update, which took almost an hour, it has now been an hour on the "Getting Windows ready. Don't turn off your computer" screen and it is still not done.

I have other 2016 servers in production on the VMware box (Exchange, DC) and I am really worried about installing this latest piece of Microsoft update crap as I have no idea how long these servers will be off-line.

We have Linux servers as well, and their updates take a fraction of the time, so thankfully our file servers and DCHP server have virtually no downtime.

Microsoft, seriously, you have a problem here and it doesn't look like it is being addressed, much less fixed.

This might not be the entire solution, I know - but have you tried to reboot your host before doing a Update run? This sometimes helps me, when Im all in tears ;-(

Hmmm, will this help? It does roughly coincide with the top post (mid-2017).

Express updates for Windows Server 2016 re-enabled for November 2018 update

"Starting with the November 13, 2018 Update Tuesday, Windows will again publish Express updates for Windows Server 2016. Express updates for Windows Server 2016 stopped in mid-2017 after a significant issue was found that kept the updates from installing correctly. While the issue was fixed in November 2017, the update team took a conservative approach to publishing the Express packages to ensure most customers would have the November 14, 2017 update (KB 4048953) installed on their server environments and not be impacted by the issue.

"System administrators for WSUS and System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) need to be aware that in November 2018 they will once again see two packages for the Windows Server 2016 update: a Full update and an Express update. System Administrators who want to use Express for their server environments need to confirm that the device has taken a full update since November 14, 2017 (KB 4048953) to ensure the Express update installs correctly. Any device which has not been updated since the November 14, 2017 (KB 4048953) will see repeated failures that consume bandwidth and CPU resources in an infinite loop if the Express update is attempted. Remediation for that state would be for the system administrator to stop pushing the Express update and push a recent Full update to stop the failure loop.

"With the November 13, 2018 Express update customers will see an immediate reduction of package size between their Management system and the Windows Server 2016 end points."

Hmmm, will this help? It does roughly coincide with the top post (mid-2017).

Express updates for Windows Server 2016 re-enabled for November 2018 update

"Starting with the November 13, 2018 Update Tuesday, Windows will again publish Express updates for Windows Server 2016. Express updates for Windows Server 2016 stopped in mid-2017 after a significant issue was found that kept the updates from installing correctly. While the issue was fixed in November 2017, the update team took a conservative approach to publishing the Express packages to ensure most customers would have the November 14, 2017 update (KB 4048953) installed on their server environments and not be impacted by the issue.

"System administrators for WSUS and System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) need to be aware that in November 2018 they will once again see two packages for the Windows Server 2016 update: a Full update and an Express update. System Administrators who want to use Express for their server environments need to confirm that the device has taken a full update since November 14, 2017 (KB 4048953) to ensure the Express update installs correctly. Any device which has not been updated since the November 14, 2017 (KB 4048953) will see repeated failures that consume bandwidth and CPU resources in an infinite loop if the Express update is attempted. Remediation for that state would be for the system administrator to stop pushing the Express update and push a recent Full update to stop the failure loop.

"With the November 13, 2018 Express update customers will see an immediate reduction of package size between their Management system and the Windows Server 2016 end points."

So are "Delta" updates what they are referring to as the "Express" and "Cumulative" updates as "Full" in the Microsoft Update Catalog??

Sounds like if we have successfully installed KB4048953, we can begin installing the Deltas ?

It doesn't look like the November 2018 patches are any different. I have a fresh Server 2016 VM with absolutely no services. Ran the November 13, 2018 cumulative and took over an hour to install and reboot. I then ran Windows Update again and a new patch came out just today(November 27, 2018). It took over an hour to get to the "restart" prompt and now I'm just sitting at the lovely "Getting Windows ready..." screen.

Seriously Microsoft, this is a joke, fix the broken update system.

HEY MICROSOFT!

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Here it is over a year later and this abortion you've foisted off on us is still not fixed! Not only did you add an annoying nag screen that can't be bypassed telling me I have some updates; you've booted the upgrade process back to the stone age! Thanks so much!

Helpful robot Eve Wang last posted here over a year ago and that's the last comment from MS on the subject...

You guys really suck donkeys,

ianc

I've had 1 WS 2016 server today just DOWNLOADING the update for 4 hours.
And when I decided to reboot the server to manually apply the update, the garbage took 30 minutes to reboot due to the lovely "Preparing to install updates". IT DIDN'T EVEN DOWNLOAD THE UPDATE!!!!!And now all I just have to do is to install the 1.45GB update. Nearing the 5th hour mark.
Of the 5 WS 2016 servers I've had the pleasure to update, 3 of them needed 2 update cycles of 2 hours each, as they failed to install the first time.Ohh boi, the times I've fantasized of the turning the VM off and pressing "Delete from disk".

And sconfig is broken:

Confirmed on multiple different WS 2016 servers.

Maybe it's the 3 Xbox services that are causing this?
Or the "Windows Mobile Hotspot Service" service?
Or CDPUserSvc service?
Or the countless other "Windows 10" remains?!

You can turn off updates :

Apply a GPO that will Disable Windows Update service & Windows Module installer service. (A GPO will protect your setup from anyone at Microsoft who could decided that both services must re-enabled at startup.)

Disabling Windows Module installer only and letting Windows update downloading the update seems viable. Updates are downloaded but YOU decide when it's time to install them. Of course that does not solve other WU shortcomings such as slow updating. At least you're not taken by surprise.

Did Someone have try windows update on 2019 server and how ir take to run in over-all. I'm so tired on my 2016 server......

We've install windows Server 2019 DataCenter with GUI on 6 Cluster Nodes.

So far updates are not bad , Unless you skip a month ofcumulative updates. The process might take longer.

Our Domain Controllers with Windows Server 2016, took over 3 hours to apply updates and reboot on server.

The first hour and 30 minutes to find out updates had failed. As everyone else stated 2008 and 2012R2 no problems occurred

I installed a new 2016 Std Srv VM today and had immediate problems with windows update. I'm using an original Lenovo 2016 Server ROK - maybe this is an issue? Anyone using a ROK? The Version of windows straight after installation is 10.0.14393 that is Windows 10 1607.

The server first wanted to install Cumulative Update 05-2018 for Server 2016. It stalled somewhere at Downloading updates - actually there was no network traffic, no disk I/O.Only TiWorker.exe going wild.

I manually downloaded Servicing stack update for Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10, version 1607: November 13, 2018 (KB4465659) and 2018-12 Kumulatives Update für Windows Server 2016 für x64-basierte Systeme (KB4483229). Uninstalled Defender: Uninstall-WindowsFeature -Name Windows-Defender, reboot, Stopped Windows Update and Windows Installer, deleted contents of c:\windows\softwaredistribution, started Windows Update.

Installed the previously downloaded KB4465659 manually

reboot

then the previously downloaded KB4483229 manually

It worked without further errors and later updates were also successful. AND QUICK.

Has anyone found anything new on this? This has been happening for a LONG time and I have had 2016 servers in the environment for about a year now. Updates for these servers have taken way too long since throwing them in my environment. Does anyone have any suggestions? I can't be coming in on a Monday morning with critical servers down because they are still installing updates or failing because the server aborted it after a certain time frame.

This is still happening...There is no reason that this should take this long. When a system downloads the update installs and reboots it should never take a corporate system 2 hours to finish an install, from the restart prompt this is just plain bad. I have employees who are online at all times of day and to tell anyone that the systems have to be updated is starting to cause C-series executives to cringe and to not want systems updates because of the impact to the business operating functions.

Get this crap fixed!

It's been like this for two years now. I can think of two reasons why they don't fix it and never will.

1. Microsoft just isn't capable of fixing this. Software installation and updates installation have always been fundamentally broken in Windows. If you compare it to more sophisticated and robust tools like APT you know what I'm talking about.

2. Microsoft wants to boost Server 2019 sales by not supporting Server 2016 properly.

Server 2016 and Windows 10 are the worst OSes ever.

Boot Window 2016 safe mode and patch .. Bypass all dumb dumb slowness. Try it, its FREE !

**Hope Windows server 2019 patch is better ...

We build Hyper-V hosts, and VM's to deploy to customers.

Since Server 2016 my deployment time, for a new host, has gone from hours to days. Those days are spend waiting for the endless updates, which cripple to newly deployed Host and VMs, often for hours, while I'm trying to configure the damn things.

Oh to have server 2012R2 back. At least that could be rolled out live in less that a week!

Boot Window 2016 safe mode and patch .. Bypass all dumb dumb slowness. Try it, its FREE !

**Hope Windows server 2019 patch is better ...

In the time it has taken to install the January cumulative patch to Windows 2016, I have managed to:

- download the 2019 evaluation ISO (on a 100Mb connection)

- install it in VirtualBox

- install all updates (including the cumulative update)

- reboot to desktop

5 mins later, Windows 2016 finally finished whatever it was doing and rebooted.

I´m still having the same issues, but now it´s getting even worse … After waiting for Hours for shi* win 2016 Server to finish his work, the update fail :)

Now additionally for waiting all this Long time I will have to troubleshoot Windows Update and telling it "I love you so much" so it get`s up again and installs the cumulative January Update..

Thank you Microsoft for no improvement at all. :)

So after two days of Windows server 2016 standard updates, I finally search the net for this slowness issue. I thought there was something wrong with my deployment but after reading two years of posts on this form, I have decided not to deploy 2016 servers at all.

Some have said that 2019 fix this issue, but I don't have the money to purchase a new OS. I have 2012R2 and was "gifted" or better yet "cursed" 2016 with software assurance. That ran out before 2019 came out so I'm stuck with 2016 until they fix updates.

And another one here.

Brand New HP Gen 10 server, 16cpu cores, 64GB of RAM, SSD Storage throughout. sitting in a datacentre with multiple gigabit internet connections

Server 2016 takes so long to download and install updates through its update process its actually quicker for me to get the KB numbers and manually download them from the Microsoft catalog. KB4465659 was an 11MB download. Windows update itself sat at preparing to download for this update for 3 hours. but even with the manual download , the install, for 11MB worth of patch took over an hour.

I agree with you.

Windows Server 2016 in much slower in update process then Windows Server 2012R2.

And troubleshooting proccess (logs reading) is muchcomplicated compare toWindows Server 2012R2 with it'sc:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log file.

MS should fix it.

Microsoft get your rear in gear ... this server 2016 is the worst windows updates framework ever !!!!

Either fix it or give us back our license money instead of giving us broken and not fit for purpose products.

We only have a limited patching window of 5 hours ... not 5 days.

The question was asked: When will Microsoft fix the issue?Answer: When we stop buying their software until they do better. You want to hit a company where it hurts, then that has to be the bottom line.Truth is MS has very little resources invested in the server team at this point. Most of their investment is in the cloud platform (Azure and O365) at this point. I don't expect them to ever really "fix" it. They just don't care. On-prem IT assets don't make them any money anymore.That said I can update Ubuntu or CentOS server in minutes with APT/RPM. And it doesn't even require a reboot 98% of the time. MS's update model is just plain awful. And it's gotten worse in 2016. It used to be I could check for updates without installing them. Can't do that in the GUI now. Check for updates and you're getting them! Additionally, I used to be able to pick and choose which updates I wanted. Nope - that's gone now too. You're getting whatever they want to force down your throat.The entire direction MS is going in has us looking really hard at any place we can get them gone! Example: we run some PHP web servers on IIS. Yea those are going to be CentOS and Apache servers next go around for sure. Things like that. Their OS really just does just suck at life these days.

Oh and don't use DFS to replicate office files unless you like loosing data. That bug has existed since Server 2003 R2 and they've reintroduced it in every server OS iterationsince!

same for me here. 30 minutes to reboot windows 2016.

Windows 2019 is very quick

Same issue for me:

New fresh Windows Server 2016 Essentials (Intel Xeon E3-1220V6, 16GB Ram, 2 HD Raid1).

After pk activation, I launched Windows Update , tried to install 2018-05 Cumulative updates (KB4103720).

It takes more than two hour to download and to prepare for installation.

Despite that, installation was failed !

I tried two other times and, finally, was installed.

I restarted the server and now I'm waiting from another hour that finish to download "2019-03 cumulative updates (KB4489889)" (now is 12% !!!!). I have an FTTC VDSL 100Mb that work fine.

Maybe for monday I will finish to patch the server…. :-(

It's unbelievable !!

This is the second server I set up this week and the same issue happen on the first.

See you on next Windows Update Hell chapter

Since this thread is populated much more i want to link you to a post done by me a few weeks ago.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/9b8b4205-d27c-424f-a993-66cc37f119cb/slow-windows-server-2016-updates-some-infos-we-found-further-discussion

I've described several things about that problem there und presented some possible "solutions".

Would be great if it helps you at least a bit to reduce the amount of time needed. If someone can dig out more info, feel free to create a reply there.

Our company has had some specific experience with this in the past few weeks.

We have had to build new 2016 physical hardware and new VMs or upgrade servers from 2012R2 ( i know Microsoft doesn't want me toupgrade to 2016, but the result is relevant ), like 15 to 20 installs.

Most of the 2016 VMs were installed on a brand new Dell with SSD OS drives and all VMs are hosted on current spec NVMe. Tons of CPU tons of RAM, all VMs given healthy amounts of dedicated RAM (16GB plus).

Others were on 10k iSCSI, some on spinning local disk, some on 12GB local SSD.

They ALL took the same amount of time to update. NVMe or ancient 10k local spinning disk. Fresh install from fresh ISO from Volume Licensing or Upgrade from 2012R2. Virtually same time.

Which is well over an hour, to FAIL. All my installations were unable to install updates itself, but it took 50-70minutes before it failed.. So after about 10 fails ( that = 10 hours ) i started manually installing kb4103720. This PRE-downloaded 1.2GB files also takes over an hour to install, and 10 minutes or more when you restart after completion.

All that work gets you to point where you can then run updates via Control Panel. The next round of updates also took more than an hour. No previous MS OS has ever behaved this way. A fresh Win2016 installation takes me about 4 MINUTES on NVMe, and then 3-4 HOURS to manually and automatically complete all updates.

This slow update experience was universal on all my 15-20 installs AND upgrades. NVMe, SSD or spinning disk.

Same problem here!

I will do an inplace upgrade of the VM to 2019 and see what happens.

then ask Microsoft to pay the upgrade licence and the work I did :-)

Let me help you here.

Since MSFT is not going to fix this problem and most of use do not want to update hundreds of server because updates are broken,download this tool:Windows Admin Center fromhttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-admin-center

I was having the same problems as everyone else here. Searching for and downloading update taking forever, update starting taking forever...

Using this tool I can kick off multiple systems at once and schedule the reboot. The server found and started the updates faster and generally took less time.

Now this isn't going to fix the other items like making the update itself install faster, but at least you bypass the waiting for downloads to start and kicking off saving some frustration.

With all that being said, this update issue is unacceptable for a company this size.

2 Hours and still nothing. Oh this is just total rubbish!

Got fed up waiting for nothing, now doing it manually. Bet you that fails too.. Doh!

Well wonders never cease it worked for a change! Sometimes I wish I could go back to Server 2008 when updates actually didn't take up a whole day of my life.

I realize it's pointless because these threads are years old, and MS has done absolutely nothing to improve this. But I'm c/p my response from the other large technet forum post...

I'm piling on this thread. I've been a system admin for 15+ years, and WU on Server 2016 is by far the most broken thing out of many broken things I've seen on Windows. Years on Server 2012, we never had issues like this. Since migrating to Server 2016 a couple years back, updates have been an endless nightmare every month - stuck on "Downloading Updates..." for hours, stuck on "Installing Updates..." for hours, no progress, seemingly doing nothing. Cumulative updates every month, taking hours/days to install. Systems almost unusable for hours. I can't even gracefully stop the Windows Update service on some of these! It just hangs at Stopping. The whole thing is a joke.

We're stuck on 2016 for now due to needing CIS benchmarks. As soon as they have one for 2019, we're done with 2016.

I can't believe MS still has done nothing about this abomination of an update process!

Everytime I schedule to do updates on this customers server it takes forever. Using Settings / Windows Update takes forever to just download. If I download the cumulative update manually it takes a couple of minutes (100mbps Internet). But then you run the cumulative update and this takes hours to run!

Wouldn't even run the latest 2019-06 update - not supported on this system!

So had to go back and start from the 2019-04 cumulative update that was listed as required in Windows Update, didn't list the latest 2019-06 update. I thought cumulative updates were supposed to install all previous updates!

Unbelievable that MS STILL HAS NOT FIXED THIS PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

any news?

Unbelievable MS !!!!!!!! :-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(:-(

If that is the case. why are there massive 1.4G downloads? You claim that it only installs the delta's. Why is the file so large? If Microsoft wants to insist on these incredibly large patches, why don't they just make the Cumulative so type of indexing file that would check you server and find what its deficient of and then download that particular patch?

We are using SCCM and all of our 2016 servers take a minimum of 90 minutes to patch and restart. More frequently,we are seeing failures at this end of this attempt and run it again only to fail again. I have manually downloaded these massive patches and ran them again on the failed servers and it succeeds.

We have petitioned Microsoft several times to proved DELTA patches but if falls on deaf ears. I had a representative earlier this year tell me that they (Microsoft) doesn't trust the technical community to patch servers with their own needs and judgement. What a crock.

Hello Everyone,

I had this exact problem windows server 2016 took multiple hours to update, following several resources i created this guide for slip streaming the iso. While i understand this isn't a solution it is a usable work around.

Install the windows development kit:https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-10-sdk

create the directories you are going to need

mkdir c:\windowsServer2016Stagingmkdir c:\windowsServer2016Staging\baseIsomkdir c:\windowsServer2016Staging\newIsomkdir c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\extractedmkdir c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mountmkdir c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches

Download a windows server 2016 iso (here is the link to the trial version iso):2016 Evaluation Isoand place it in the base iso path

Extract the iso to the extracted path

Download the following KBs to the patches directory
KB4103720
KB4509091
KB4507459
KB4512495

In an administrative command prompt run the following:

Mount-WindowsImage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount  -ImagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\extracted\sources\install.wim -Index 2Add-WindowsPackage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -packagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches\[KB4103720_PATH]Add-WindowsPackage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -packagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches\[KB4509091_PATH]Add-WindowsPackage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -packagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches\[KB4507459_PATH]Add-WindowsPackage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -packagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches\[KB4512495_PATH]Dismount-windowsImage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -Save& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\amd64\Oscdimg\oscdimg.exe' -bootdаta:"2#p0,e,bboot\Etfsboot.com#pEF,e,befi\Microsoft\boot\Efisys.bin" -u1 -udfver102 c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\extracted c:\windowsServer2016Staging\newIso\WS_2016_Updated.iso

skipping 2016 is no solution, as the cumulative updates for 2019 are also growing from month to month. so perhaps you will not have the problem now, but in 1-1.5 years I predict to have the same problem with 2019. So MS has to find a solution for this, as it's getting worse from month to month...

So there is still no solution to this? Absolutely useless Microsoft!

My updates have been running for 2 hours and 15 minutes now...

Latest October cumulative update was a fight.

Couldn't clear the download cache because it refused to let me stop windows update service because it was repeatedly trying to re-download the update in settings but getting stuck at 0%!

in the end I had to:

1. Disable the windows update service in services

2. Reboot the server

3. Wait nearly an hour for the server to reboot (Getting things ready!)

3. Clear the downloads cache

4. Restart the windows update service

5. Run the patch manually and wait 3 hours.

What a load of nonsense!! Wasted hours of my life trying to get one update installed!

Excuse me for necroposting and bad English. May be, this will help someone who have to update lots of Windows 2016 installations manually to save some time. Based on thehttps://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295047-general-feedback/suggestions/32121229-stop-the-windows-update-madness-on-ws2016solution.

1. Before installing the updates, you may do this even days and weeks before, run this command:%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanupThis will prepare windows image by removing unneeded versions of updated binary components and may take from few minutes if run recently to some hours for the first time. Most important, it will dramatically shorten the most annoying thing - long reboot time with the "Getting Windows ready..." message, then you don't have any control of the server and services are down. You don't have to run this command before each and any update, but it seems to be useful at least once in each few months. It does not interfere too much with normal server workload and can be started even in production hours, because it usually does not use more then one CPU core. Only one downside I found - you can't start any software or Windows components installation in parallel, it will wait until the end of cleanup and most likely fail. As far as I can understand, this command by default should exist and run as a sheduled system task, but on server systems something went wrong.
2. Then installing the updates, ignore "download" and "installing" messages - they are missleading. Actual installation begins in the download phase, you may find it youself by monitoring processes in the task manager. Unfortunatelly, update installation usually don't consume more than one CPU core, and I was unable to find any solution to this. So adding resources to the server usually don't speed up the process. Relax and wait, you have nothing to do with this.
3. Upgrade to the Windows 2019 at the first possibility. This is the only ultimate solution.

Documentation:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder

Using the /StartComponentCleanup parameter of Dism.exe on a running version of Windows 10 gives you similar results to running the StartComponentCleanup task in Task Scheduler, except previous versions of updated components will be immediately deleted (without a 30 day grace period) and you will not have a 1-hour timeout limitation.

Disclaimer: this will not help a lot. This will definitely don't help if some of the system files are damaged, use the full command set from the first link then:

"%SystemRoot%\System32\sfc.exe" /scannow
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:WIM:
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

Optional: "%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /resetbase

I solved this problem by uninstalling the Windows Defender feature following instructions here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/windows-defender-antivirus/windows-defender-antivirus-on-windows-server-2016

I used the powershell option to remove it and all updates, while still not quick, are much faster.

I solved this problem by uninstalling the Windows Defender feature following instructions here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/windows-defender-antivirus/windows-defender-antivirus-on-windows-server-2016

I used the powershell option to remove it and all updates, while still not quick, are much faster.

This worked for me as well. I used PowerShell as @Jaxboy suggested and after rebooting it dramatically lowered the time to install Windows Updates.

Uninstall-WindowsFeature -Name Windows-Defender

1. Before installing the updates, you may do this even days and weeks before, run this command:%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanupThis will prepare windows image by removing unneeded versions of updated binary components and may take from few minutes if run recently to some hours for the first time. Most important, it will dramatically shorten the most annoying thing - long reboot time with the "Getting Windows ready..." message, then you don't have any control of the server and services are down. You don't have to run this command before each and any update, but it seems to be useful at least once in each few months. It does not interfere too much with normal server workload and can be started even in production hours, because it usually does not use more then one CPU core. Only one downside I found - you can't start any software or Windows components installation in parallel, it will wait until the end of cleanup and most likely fail. As far as I can understand, this command by default should exist and run as a sheduled system task, but on server systems something went wrong.

Could not agree more!!

This just sucks!!!

Sitting here now an march, 3rd, 2020 and waiting 3 hours to get my handful of vm's with 2016 to complete...

TiWorker kicking in for the second time on rebooting the machines.

Why is that ridiculous ceremony!

Same old story here. Since I first setup this machine as a DC, updates have been god-awful slow.

I've tried several of the steps above to no avail. After an hour at 10%, it just jumped to 70%. I don't dare restart it when it's done this close to the start of the work day when everyone else rolls in. I even came in three hours early to get a jump on this. Unacceptable.

Server rebooting for approx 4H. working on updates 100% complete......

same problem sinds 3 years.

The only solution that I have found is to upgrade to Windows Server 2019. Everything else is a PITA.

Windows Update on Server 2016 is a disaster and Microsoft has shown that they have no interest in fixing this issue.

This is built-in system task since Windows 8. And it is repeating quite regularly.

Seehttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder