Well that was a good waste of a day. I had downloaded Windows 7 SP1 from MSDN to test an application compatibility issue. Little did I realise it would take a whole day just to install and patch an OS.
The initial install was simple but it all went wrong when I clicked that “Check for updates” button. The bar was just animating and nothing was happening. An hour went by with no progress and I knew something was wrong. Multiple Google searches and reinstalls later I stumbled on the right snippet of information on some obscure forum.
Cut a long story short, if you’re here from a search, you just want the answer so you can get on with your day.
Download and install KB3102810 first and you’ll be able to click that “Check for updates button”, sit back and sip on your preferred caffeinated beverage, smug in the knowledge that you didn’t waste a day like me 🙂
You’ll need to wait about 10-15 minutes for the update list to build (depending on hardware and patch date) so be patient.
One important tip I’d recommend, when you do that first update, go into the optional patches, hide all the languages you’re not interested in (select, right click, hide) then add in all the important and optional patches on the first update. I didn’t do this the first time and I ended up in patch purgatory where it wouldn’t let me update again, so I reinstalled and did the whole lot this time without issue.