I've looked at 2 Win 7 machines in the last week and both were unable to successfully perform updates for the system or Windows Defender. I saw on the MS site that defender no longer provides full protection under Win 7, but nothing about system updates.
 
I'm thinking they're actively trying to push people off the platform.

ampfixer
I've looked at 2 Win 7 machines in the last week and both were unable to successfully perform updates for the system or Windows Defender. I saw on the MS site that defender no longer provides full protection under Win 7, but nothing about system updates.
 
I'm thinking they're actively trying to push people off the platform.

This post prompted me to check my one remaining Win 7 Pro PC (not a DAW).
 
Ran Windows Update and it promptly returned that 2 Important, and 4 Optional, updates are available (for July).
 
Was currently patched up through June 2017, with update options set to "Never check for updates" (let me do it manually).
 
I dunno about Defender, don't use that one.  But there are a few other good free AV's that run on Win 7.

Mainstream support for Windows 7 ended January 15, 2015. You can still get some bug fixes and security patches under extended support until January 14, 2020.
 
Windows 7 uses Microsoft Security Essentials as its free from MS antivirus. As far as I can tell Defender was never supported on that platform.
 
https://support.microsoft...ty-essentials-download

slartabartfast
Mainstream support for Windows 7 ended January 15, 2015. You can still get some bug fixes and security patches under extended support until January 14, 2020.
 
Windows 7 uses Microsoft Security Essentials as its free from MS antivirus. As far as I can tell Defender was never supported on that platform.
 
https://support.microsoft...ty-essentials-download

Windows Defender has been available since Windows XP, but only as an anti-spyware program for XP, Vista, and Win 7.
 
You are correct that MSE is the free MS antivirus for Win 7.  For Windows 8 and 10 MS used the Defender name for their new AV.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Defender
 
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3197674/cybercrime-hacking/windows-defender-does-not-defend-windows-7-against-wannacry.html
 

ampfixer
I've looked at 2 Win 7 machines in the last week and both were unable to successfully perform updates for the system or Windows Defender. I saw on the MS site that defender no longer provides full protection under Win 7, but nothing about system updates.
 
I'm thinking they're actively trying to push people off the platform.

Depending on exactly where the machine is (updates wise), it can take a **long** time for the machine to connect to the MS update servers and download/install the Win7 updates.
There are several updates you can manually download/install... and ultimately circumvent the issue.
 
IMO, MS is doing this to "encourage" folks to move to Win10.
Not excusing MS in any way... but (at this point) Win10 is solid/robust as a DAW platform.
There's more to shut down, but with the Pro version the Group Policy Editor makes it easy to shut down Cortana, etc.
 
 
 

Interesting. I've had the machines sit for over an hour, indicating they were downloading updates with 0% progress. Based on what Jim said, maybe I should just let them sit there overnight. I hate doing that though. Nothing worse than padding out to the machine in the morning, only to be greeted by a pop-up that says "Do You Wish To Proceed?"

I did a clean install of my Win 7 Pro last fall, and getting the updates caught up to date was a painfully long process, with multiple reboots and re-checking for new updates.  So I made a disk image backup afterwards, to enable a quick restore if I ever need to reinstall. 
 
So last fall I think I picked up every update needed to grease the Win 7 update chute.
 
I have applied the monthly updates ever since without any issues. 
 
But I do recall earlier last year there were some seriously long delays for several months.  Many web forums chalked it up to a few required updates that could smooth things out.  But if you had hidden them, or failed to keep updates current, or did a clean install, you could easily fall out of step with the process.
 
Check out the resolutions in this article:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3200747/windows-update-is-taking-an-unusually-long-time-to-scan-and-install-up

Windows 10 is hog on my current system. I can't be bothered disabling all the "required" features as yet. Life is too short.
 

Windows 10 "out of the box" experience is crap.
 
But if you spend the time to wrangle it into submission, it is like Windows 7 on steroids.  Just sayin! 
 
Win 10 Pro version highly recommended!  *Group Policy Editor*

When I do a new build it will be optimised prime.