wuwuclt.exe - a problem?

Habbakuk

I started my computer this morning and it took absoutely ages to boot. I had a look at the processes being run and I saw wuauclt.exe running and taking up quite a bit of memory usage. Apparently it's a kind of microsoft updater. If I uncheck autopmatic updates will this cause a problem and leave my system vulnerable. Of course, it might actualy not be the sole reason for the slow boot. But a goole search did find that others had identified it as a problem.

PS How about mbamservice.exe which also uses a lot of memory?

Thanks.

Edit to say I have found out that mbamservice is malwarebites so forgett that. :-)

WTFH

wuauclt is, as you've discovered, to do with Microsoft updates.

Today is Wednesday. Updates are normally released on Tuesdays, so your system is installing the updates. You can switch off auto updates if you want, then you just need to remember to run the updates manually every so often, or you could be leaving yourself open to problems.

Depending on the operating system and age of the machine, if you really want to speed it up, do a full backup, wipe the disk, then restore it. That's one of the best ways to get it running faster.
Also, uninstall any junk that you don't need.

rhcp

I had the same problem this morning, but svchost.exe was using up all the cpu. I just clicked on end the process on task manager. I not sure whether that was a good thing to do or not, and I don't want to have to do it every time I reboot my computer.

WTFH

rhcp, generally not a good thing to do on a Wednesday morning, but reboot and it should sort itself out.
Computers need time to install updates - when users interrupt the process it takes the computer longer to do it the next time. You then think you have a slow computer, and the loop just goes on.

grumpycrab

Is this with XP? Then its the usual MS updates cockup...(svchost running wild with XP SP3)

You have 2 options. 1. disable windows updates and wait until MS fixes it OR 2. try and fix it your self...

I see the svchost/windows update bug has reappeared with a vengeance (November updates?). I haven't used my XP clients for a few weeks and going to them yesterday I hit this wall.

http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/windows-xp-update-locks-machines-svchost-redlined-100-fix-it-kb-2879017-230733

I went through all the usual Fixits and IE8 cumulative updates (specifically KB2879017). (No problems with BITS here).
Even failed with a rollback to July.

** The final fix was to reinstall IE8 from scratch ** (1st time failed, 2nd time worked pulling in another 24updates).

Habbakuk

Yes with xp. It seems to be fine now though but it was completely (well amost) locked earlier.

Habbakuk

This may solve the problem:

http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/windows-xp-update-locks-machines-svchost-redlined-100-fix-it-kb-2879017-230733

grumpycrab

Habbakuk wrote: »

This may solve the problem:

http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/windows-xp-update-locks-machines-svchost-redlined-100-fix-it-kb-2879017-230733

That's the same place I linked too. The problem is it wasn't fixed and, as far as I'm aware, still hasn't been fixed. Of-course not everybody with XP has the "svchost running wild problem" and since it occurred in November most people who were going to get the problem will have already seen it.

Quite a few of my XP clients only get started occasionally and the issue affected over half of them . Rather than disable updates I tried to fix it and found that a complete IE reinstall was the best solution.