03 October 2014

Failure configuring Windows updates reverting changes...

At 2pm I started tidying up a new Windows 8 laptop that I had bought for a friend in the village. After getting rid of a few trial programs that manufacturers insist of including, presumably in the hope that they'll get some commission when people forget that their trial has ended and the payments have started to kick in, I got Windows update under way.

It's now nearly 9pm. For several hours, and by several I mean at least five, possibly six, I was staring at a screen which told me first that x out of 96 updates were being downloaded and then installed. That was reasonably bearable at first but when the next ominous message appeared I felt a chill in the air.

Failure configuring Windows updates reverting changes. Do not switch off.


That's scary. Especially as there was little help from Microsoft on their site which suggested that it might take up to 30 minutes! I read quite a few other posts from people who had had similar problems and it seems that when you have a really really large number of updates then there's an awful lot to download and install and things can go wrong. The sensible suggestions were, if you could ever get back to a normal screen, to pick and choose essential updates only and do them a few at a time. Indeed there may well have been loads in those 96 I was doing that weren't necessary at all. Unfortunately, unless you're prepared to bite the bullet and do what you're not told and switch off there's no way back to a normal screen. So I decided to leave it to it for a while. One chap on a forum post had said that his had taken 4 hours and all had been well at the end so I decided that I would leave it all night if need be and see what had happened in the morning, assuming that some power settings hadn't chipped in and turned the damn thing off anyway!

So it was with some relief that after the five or six hours the display changed and finally I was back with a start screen and what seemed a working laptop!

If you're starting off on something similar then be patient, and hope. You may also be able to download all the updates but be selective in what you actually install if you feel happy taking control of what is normally automatic. As soon as you can, install Windows 8.1 which has significant improvements. You try turning 8 off or switching from those full screen applications! It's all pretty much trial and error but 8.1 adds a bit more control.