Windows 7 update recently behaving weird, stalls for many minutes

[paulds]

"my Windows Update service had been completely disabled and I have a link in my Windows update page that says "Find out more about free software from (null). Click here for details." "

(copied this from a resolved post  December 14, 2013)

  I am having this same issue as of 12-3-17

Windows 7, SP 1, on a Dell Inspiron laptop

[exile360]

Greetings,

First I'd recommend giving this troubleshooter from Microsoft a try as a first step.  Just answer the questions on the page and it will guide you to a download for a troubleshooting utility that should reset everything for Windows Update to defaults and hopefully get it functioning properly again.

If that doesn't resolve the issue let us know.  There are a few other tools I know of that we can try.

[paulds]

Thank you for responding, I am familiar with the MS update troubleshooters and have used them not long ago to get update to work again after it had stopped and then it was working fine for several months.

This now is some other unusual behavior that just started with it taking many minutes of blank screen before a "real" looking update screen comes and then when the check for updates button is pressed a popup message appears that says service is not authorized to start (or something like that) and also the following text is included on the screen: "Find out more about free software from (null). Click here for details."  Never seen either one of those before.

Also I have been getting what appear to be redirects  such as: "Internet security alert" and miscellaneous software update alert pages (Adobe,Java) that look bogus.

The latest had these addresses: mainrdct.gobal.ssl.fastly.net/in/advu12612612/,  and: adverrd.global.ssl.fastly.net

[paulds]

Sorry,  . . I forgot to review the site instructions before I posted my issue

Attached are FRST.txt and Addition  scan files.  I also ran the MB AV scan before the Farbar tool

Addition.txt

FRST.txt

[exile360]

No worries.  Yeah, it sounds like an infection is the root cause of the issue based on the behaviors you describe (the redirects etc.).  If you would, please create a new topic in this area and one of our malware removal specialists will work with you one-on-one to remove any threats and hopefully get your system running normally again.  Include the logs you posted above as they will require them, and also follow as much of the instructions posted here as you are able to.  My guess is that the infection causing the redirects is probably some kind of bot or rootkit and that is also what is breaking Windows Update.  It's something they often do to prevent you from installing necessary security patches that might prevent them from doing their nefarious work on your system.

Edited December 10, 2017 by exile360

[paulds]

Thank you for your assistance, I will repost as you say

[exile360]

You're welcome, and good luck

I'm sure they'll get you fixed right up.  Just follow their instructions and they should be able to get your system running like new again.