What do I need to do next? (Win 7 VM, recent 10.6.8->10.11.4 OS upgrade)

I have a Windows 7 VM that has been around since Parallels 4. I recently upgraded my system from OS X 10.6.8 to 10.11.4, and Parallels to 11.1.3.

I'm having a number of problems, to include:
- OS crashes while I'm in Parallels.
- Windows Update and Update Windows Defender both hang without ever erroring out or finding any updates.
Actually, those two are enough for now. I'm pretty stumped on how to fix either.

I *DO NOT* want to go to Windows 10. Ever. Period. I have six years of applications (seriously: six years) installed in my current Win 7 VM, which I would very much not like to have to reinstall, but I CAN put my hands on my original Win 7 Pro disc if needed.

 

I know it's a holiday weekend, but no ideas?

 

Hi @JonathanC5, please try uninstalling and reinstalling Parallels Desktop and also to fix the issue with Windows updates, refer to this article.
To improve the performance of the virtual machine, refer to this article.

 

The instructions in the Windows Update KB article don't work. When I enter the commands in a DOS/shell/CMD/(whatever we're calling it these days) prompt, It's saying I don't have permission, despite the fact that I am an administrator. I tried messing around with runas, but I did not have any immediate success. Any further ideas?

 

Hi Jonathan, please open the command prompt to run as administrator and then try the commands.

 

Ok, I did that, and 13 of the .dll's did not register properly. BITS wasn't started in the first place, nor did it autorestart after rebooting. Nothing has seemed to change the behavior of trying to update via Windows Update or Windows Defender's self update--both just seek forever (well, or at least for 20 minutes) without finding a thing.
Yet all other Internet access works fine from within the VM.

 

Please try running SFC scan in the Windows virtual machine, refer to https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/kb/929833

 

"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

 

Since the issue persists, please send us an email describing the issue at cs@parallels.com so that one of our Support Engineers can have a look and assist you further.

 

I think something has happened at Microsoft which has affected reliability of Windows Update for Windows 7.

I have been involved with two Windows 7 installations....my own in Parallels and my father's Acer laptop. Windows Update has reliably worked in both machines for years but recently stopped working....just endless checking for updates.

I have tried extensive and complex suggestions to solve it without success, even on my father's machine erasing and reinstalling Windows 7, which still would not update.

Obviously not all machines are affected, and I have another Win 7 in a Parallels on a different Mac which works, but my feeling is that something has changed at MS.

Microsoft Security Essentials was is updating definitions OK on both machines.

I have restored to snapshots taken well before Windows Update last worked, and I have also restored a backup VM created when Windows Update was working. Neither of these now work, which combined with my father's machine which wouldn't update even after a erase/install, make think something is happening at MS.

 

Today Windows Update on my Windows 7 VM is working....confirms my feeling that at least some of the issues are at MS.

 

I left them running for a few hours last night and the updates downloaded finally.

 

Hi all,
Please update to Parallels Desktop 11.2 to the latest build and let us know how it works.