There are occasions when Microsoft Windows will make life so difficult that murder becomes an attractive option. I can usually have a go at fixing a problem when I know what the problem is. But then there are times when even knowing the problem leaves you in the dark when trying to fix them.
Today was one such occasion. It started yesterday evening when my laptop informed me that Windows needs to restart to complete the latest update. I like to get things like that out of the way as soon as possible, so I did the required restart and cracked on with some other stuff I needed to do.
It became apparent after about 40 minutes that something was amiss. The screen showed the usual blue update screen warning me not to turn my computer off as it was ‘working’ on the updates and was at 0%. Twenty minutes later, it was still at 0%!
It was then that I took drastic action and put my laptop into ‘sleep mode’. Upon waking up again everything seemed fine until it got stuck again 10 minutes later. A bit more sleep mode and then the update finished. By this time it was getting late and I decided that I needed to go into ‘sleep mode.’
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This morning new problems appeared. Everything was running very slowly and some applications were simply refusing to open. I remembered from my previous job that if there was a problem, I should run the “System File Checker” (sfc.exe). This would find the problem and I could then look for a solution. It took about 2½ hours to run, but the system still seemed slow. I was contemplating how I could explain that I needed a new machine when a pop-up occurred telling me that ‘Windows needs to restart …” again. A quick look in the update settings told me that the previous update had not been installed.
Once again I restarted my laptop and after a good 30 minutes, I was back up and running. This time everything was back to normal speed and all the applications were behaving themselves. I’m thinking that yesterdays update file was corrupted somehow and a new version of the update fixed everything. But who knows?
From the keyboard of Tony 
Oh, no! I’ve just left mine updating with instructions to switch off when done, I hope all is okay in the morning.
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I think it was just a glitch in my download, but it was a little worrying.I’ve now found that the Word Blog template is not working. It’s okay until you add a title to the post, but as soon as you add a title, the post becomes protected and I cannot do anything with it. Annoying!
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No! in that case that will be the first thing I’ll check tomorrow. If it keeps up Can you go back in time before the update took place?
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I think you can delete the update somehow and then reinstall it. There used to be something on the MS website that explained it. 🤞
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Some years ago I did an microsoft specialist course but like everything else… Use it or lose it and I think I’ve forgotten much of what I learned. BUT this I remembered, System Restore allows you to choose a date and time to create a system restore point. I think its settings and advanced. Not that you need it now that its all sorted.
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Update: Everything seems okay this morning, if anything the boot time is slightly faster.🙂
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I didn’t get a chance to check mine until last night, it seems olay.
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Ahhh you triggered one of my favourite memories here – the great Christmas Update of DOOM. Windows can be super funky sometimes for real. (The Christmas Update of DOOM happened years ago during Christmas time at work. My two elderly coworkers NEVER ran the windows updates because they were afraid they might break something. That day, during lunch time, all three computeres suddenly decided that NOW was the time to do ALL THE UPDATES come what may. All three computers shut down and rebooted; customers were waiting, we are appeasing. And then I looked at the screen and the screen read: “Installing Update 1 out ouf 67.”
Good times. (Especially when I got told off by one of the coworkers for telling the folks to get their stuff (concert tickets etc.) elsewhere. I don’t if she really expected the customers to wait for an unedefined time during their lunchbreak but I’m pretty sure it would have come to bloodshed.)
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When I worked at the Council, all updates were extensively tested by the IT team, before they were released to the workforce. So we didn’t usually have any issues. In 2007, some of the updates were issued early which caused many problems when the whole network went down. Happy days 😅
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