When you install Windows 7 on a new computer or if you reinstall Windows 7 from scratch, not only do you also need to install Windows 7 Service Pack 1, but you also need to start Windows Update and download a hundred other patches that came out after l 'SP1. The process is long and tedious for Windows 7, whose latest cumulative update, namely Service Pack 1, dates back to 5 years ago.
The good news is that Microsoft has finally decided to put together all the updates released since the release of the SP1, from February 2011, until May 2016 in a single package to download and install, making it much easier and faster the Windows 7 upgrade process.
Although it has officially been called "Convenience Update", we could call this package the Windows 7 Service Pack 2 .
Basically, to install Windows 7 from scratch today you can operate in this way as appropriate:
- If you already have the Windows 7 SP1 CD / DVD you can proceed with the direct installation and then download our Service Pack 2 (as we will see in the next section of this article).
- If instead you had the Windows 7 CD / DVD without SP1, you must first download and install Service Pack 1 (KB976932), and then also Service Pack 2, without ever going through Windows Update.
- If you don't have the CD / DVD, you can download Windows 7 as already explained in another article, which already includes Service Pack 1.
In this case, you can then create a USB stick to install Windows 7 with manual procedure or with the Rufus program, very convenient and recommended.
The only thing to be careful of, both in the download of Windows 7 and of the possible Service Pack, is the choice between the 32 bit or 64 bit version.
READ ALSO: Format and install Windows from scratch, to have a clean and new PC
Now, before moving on to download our SP2, you need to install an additional file because otherwise it won't work (Microsoft wants this strange procedure, but better than before it is).
Precisely it is necessary to install the maintenance stack April 2015 update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 ( kb3020369 32 bit or 64 bit).
Finally we can now put our Service Pack 2, that is the cumulative package of all the Patches from 2011 to May 2016.
As Microsoft reports on its technet blog, you can download it at the following link:
//catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=3125574 .
This web page can only be opened in Internet Explorer (it does not work with Chrome, with Firefox and not even with Edge) because it requires you to install a plugin or ActiveX control that only supports Internet Explorer.
The package name is Update for Windows 7 (KB3125574) or Update for Windows 7 for x64-based systems (KB3125574) released on 05/16/2016.
To download it, first press the Add button and then click on View cart at the top to start the download which is, of course, free and weighs between 300 MB and 500 MB in total.
Choose the folder where to save the file and, when it is downloaded, double click on it to run it and update Windows 7 until the patches of May 2016.
To conclude, open Windows Update from the Control Panel to see if there are other updates to install which, this time, shouldn't be many.
Let future updates be automatic and enjoy Windows 7 fully updated and ready to run at least until 2020 without problems.
READ ALSO: How long will there be support for Windows 7?
