Windows 7 SP1 Windows Update stuck checking for updates

I installed Windows 7 fresh and installed SP1. Now, when I try to check manually for Windows Updates it just hangs on the Checking for updates screen.

I tried running the tools in How do I reset Windows Update components?, but this did not fix the issue either:

No matter what I do it just hangs on the "Checking for updates..." screen and goes no further.

Answer

Fix

Microsoft released a Windows Update Client Update which is part of the July 2016 Update Rollup to fix the long hang at Windows Update scan.

This update contains some improvements to Windows Update Client in
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1). This includes the following:

• An optimization that addresses long scan time for updates that's reported on some computers.

1. Download:

   
   



2. Stop Windows Update service. This speeds up the setup of MSU updates and the useless steps from Moab are not required (reboot causes that the WU service is stopped until it gets started via trigger when Internet is available). This can be done from the command line, or from the Service Manager window.




3. Try the downloaded update and see if it speeds up the installation of Updates.

To be able to install the update you first need to install the April 2015 servicing stack update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 update (again, stop WU service before trying to install the MSU).

Download (April 2015 servicing stack update):

Workaround 1

If this is still not helping to search for new updates, use WSUSOffline to get all the updates.