I noticed a couple of months ago that I have not been receiving windows updates since, I think, November. I googled and found some info and tried what was said but it didn't help.

Today, I decided to make use of my Amazon Prime membership and downloaded Kindle to this computer and also watched some tv show in my library. All of a sudden there are updates downloaded waiting to be installed when I shut down or during the night. There are only 6 important and 12 optional.

I'm a little afraid because I would think there would be a LOT more updates than that.

Any thoughts?

What version of Windows is this?

Windows 7

I just did a restart which did not do any updates. Don't know if it should have in between shutting down and restarting or not?

That's very strange, because there have been updates (released as monthly "rollups").
If it's not possible that they installed without you being aware of it, I don't have an explanation.
Look up the KB numbers in the list of updates and see when the patches in your list were released.

Here's a recent Ask Woody.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/32...-contained.html

Apparently April 2018 updates for Windows 7 caused a serious bug, and the later April updates had to correct it. So you should certainly have the patch that corrects the problems with the first update.




Could it be in the process of downloading them?

Maybe Draclvr has a better idea of what's going on.

EDIT...

Microsoft has had some buggy Windows 7 updates the last two months.
Maybe they decided not to push them out to everyone.
https://www.askwoody.com/2018/patch-lady-new-update-for-windows-7-kb-4100480/

This link is what problem I had. At the moment, I cannot find the link to the solution I tried.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind...f0-d0474a1b7480

The last updates I received were on November 16th 2017. These 3:

Update for Microsoft.Net Framework 4.7 KB4041778
Update for Microsoft Windows KB2952664
Security Update for Microsoft Windows KB4048957

I knew there were updates coming through at work which is when I noticed I wasn't getting any at home.

The Important ones showing for today are:

KB4055532 published 1/18
KB4076492 published 2/13
KB4093118 published 4/23
KB4033342 published 1/09
KB2952664 published 4/10
KB890830 published 4/10

Of the Optional ones, only this one is current: KB4093113 published 4/23

I believe they are downloaded and ready to install. I'm afraid if these install now, I might have a worse problem than not having any updates.

All the "important" updates installed when I shut down last night. So far, so good! I don't know why they stopped working and why it seems like using my Amazon Prime benefits seems to have started them working again.

which has a link to https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind...3b-20608d79524c

It sounds like a lot of people had the same problem. This kind of thing has made people speculate that Microsoft is deliberately sabotaging Windows 7 in an effort to force them to use Windows 10. Who knows whether that's true or whether Microsoft is simply inept at testing their updates.

I don't see why using "Amazon Prime benefits" would make a difference unless you had to install software for it, and the software somehow fixed what Microsoft may have broken. But that's certainly possible considering one of the "fixes" some people found was to change Windows 7 to "never check for updates" and then change it back to "install updates automatically."

I saw that solution Jenny but that was not what I had done. The link I included was not actually what I found a few months back when I googled but it IS exactly what my computer was telling me.

I don't know about the Amazon thing but, the fact that just after doing that, the updates showed up is kind of weird.

I'm glad it's fixed as I was worried about not getting security updates, but after reading the material you linked to, maybe it was good that mine wasn't working. What a mess when the updates make things WORSE!

Absolutely a mess.
If Microsoft couldn't keep up with testing updates for three versions of Windows, they shouldn't have pushed out 10 while 7 and 8 were still supposedly being supported.

Both (sabotage of Windows 7 , being inept at update testing ) .

Heck !!!! Would Microsoft sink so low ????