I usually don't have my laptop connected to the internet, and yesterday
was no different. I have wireless disabled, and there was no ethernet
cable connected to my network card either.

Today though, I decided to connect to the internet and when I went into
settings to check for updates, the screen told me that the last time
Windows had successfully checked for updates was yesterday at 8:15 am
when I was nowhere even near a router.

Can anybody tell me how Windows would have been able to check for
updates when I wasn't even online?

TIA

--
John C.

On 2/5/2024 5:25 AM, John C. wrote:
> I usually don't have my laptop connected to the internet, and yesterday
> was no different. I have wireless disabled, and there was no ethernet
> cable connected to my network card either.
>
> Today though, I decided to connect to the internet and when I went into
> settings to check for updates, the screen told me that the last time
> Windows had successfully checked for updates was yesterday at 8:15 am
> when I was nowhere even near a router.
>
> Can anybody tell me how Windows would have been able to check for
> updates when I wasn't even online?
>
> TIA
>

Well, of course it didn't check for updates.
Not in any conventional sense.

But a task fired off, and that's what it recorded.

*******

Logging:

1) GUI notation (you saw that).
2) Eventvwr.msc (does some useful error logging for us, sometimes)
3) CBS.log (component based servicing log, a text file)
4) Get-WindowsUpdateLog - a Powershell script

In an administrator terminal (powershell-like), you may notice
there is tab-completion. If you type the name of a utility, the
first letters, pressing tab repeatedly, shows items in the
executable powershell path that are available. If I type Get-Windows
and then hit the tab, eventually I will see the above utility fully
spelled out.

Get-WindowsUpdateLog

WindowsUpdate.log written to C:\Users\username\Desktop\WindowsUpdate.log

Then take a look through that file on your desktop.

The file on mine, is not that long of a file, so I hope
your "incident" is in the file for you. There is only a
couple days worth

Paul

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I usually don't have my laptop connected to the internet, and yesterday
> was no different. I have wireless disabled, and there was no ethernet
> cable connected to my network card either.
>
> Today though, I decided to connect to the internet and when I went into
> settings to check for updates, the screen told me that the last time
> Windows had successfully checked for updates was yesterday at 8:15 am
> when I was nowhere even near a router.
>
> Can anybody tell me how Windows would have been able to check for
> updates when I wasn't even online?
>
> TIA

Checking is not the same as downloading and installing. It checked, but
failed. Event viewer probably has some entries at that time showing the
check failed.

John C. wrote:

> I usually don't have my laptop connected to the internet, and yesterday
> was no different. I have wireless disabled, and there was no ethernet
> cable connected to my network card either.
>
> Today though, I decided to connect to the internet and when I went into
> settings to check for updates, the screen told me that the last time
> Windows had successfully checked for updates was yesterday at 8:15 am
> when I was nowhere even near a router.

When I go into settings to check for updates, the screen tells me:

Last checked: Yesterday, 8:15 AM

There is no word "successfully" there. John C may be reading more into
it than what it actually says.

> Can anybody tell me how Windows would have been able to check for
> updates when I wasn't even online?

The update check process ran *on schedule* at 8:15 am yesterday. It
could find no new updates simply because John C was not online.

John C. wrote:
> I usually don't have my laptop connected to the internet, and yesterday
> was no different. I have wireless disabled, and there was no ethernet
> cable connected to my network card either.
>
> Today though, I decided to connect to the internet and when I went into
> settings to check for updates, the screen told me that the last time
> Windows had successfully checked for updates was yesterday at 8:15 am
> when I was nowhere even near a router.
>
> Can anybody tell me how Windows would have been able to check for
> updates when I wasn't even online?
>
> TIA
>

This happens on all my devices; laptops with Win11, phones, tablets.
They say "We checked" but don't add "unsuccessfully".
The phones under android are the worst culprits. You hit check, and get
"no updates available", hit it again and suddenly lots appear.
It's just due to bad programming; or perhaps that modern universal sin
of "not thinking sufficiently ahead".

Ed

John C. wrote on 2/5/24 3:25 AM:
> I usually don't have my laptop connected to the internet, and yesterday
> was no different. I have wireless disabled, and there was no ethernet
> cable connected to my network card either.
>
> Today though, I decided to connect to the internet and when I went into
> settings to check for updates, the screen told me that the last time
> Windows had successfully checked for updates was yesterday at 8:15 am
> when I was nowhere even near a router.
>
> Can anybody tell me how Windows would have been able to check for
> updates when I wasn't even online?
>
> TIA
>
Just under-the-hood and automatic checking(existing versions of Windows
Update engine(local] and server(online). The latter, would fail without
an internet connection with the process still logged and reported as
being done.

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ

....w¡ñ§±¤ñ <winstonmvp@gmail.com> wrote:
> John C. wrote on 2/5/24 3:25 AM:
> > I usually don't have my laptop connected to the internet, and yesterday
> > was no different. I have wireless disabled, and there was no ethernet
> > cable connected to my network card either.
> >
> > Today though, I decided to connect to the internet and when I went into
> > settings to check for updates, the screen told me that the last time
> > Windows had successfully checked for updates was yesterday at 8:15 am
> > when I was nowhere even near a router.
> >
> > Can anybody tell me how Windows would have been able to check for
> > updates when I wasn't even online?
> >
> > TIA
> >
> Just under-the-hood and automatic checking(existing versions of Windows
> Update engine(local] and server(online). The latter, would fail without
> an internet connection with the process still logged and reported as
> being done.

John C. says that Windows Update (WU) told him it had succesfully
checked for updates, but as John Careless mentioned, WU doesn't actually
say that.

AFAIC, the missing information is whether or not WU says "You're up to
date".

If it does say that without an Internet connection, then that *would*
be wrong, because it can't possibly know whether you're up to date or
not.

It's also important to know whether or not WU gave the tick-mark in a
green circle indication (that's probably what John C. meant by

[Repeat:]
> > the screen told me that the last time
> > Windows had successfully checked for updates was yesterday at 8:15 am
> > when I was nowhere even near a router.
[End repeat.]