Windows update failed on laptop. Failed to configure Windows updates. Cancel changes. Windows problems after installing updates

Our regular reader Serg I ran into this problem while booting Windows 8.

Good day!
Could you help me with my problem. During the installation of the latest updates on Windows 8, the electricity in the house suddenly turned off. The laptop lived on an old battery for several minutes and, of course, crashed. After the light was still given, and the system began to boot, a screen appeared with the inscription "". Waited several hours - zero effect. Restarting the power supply does not help either, every time Windows 8 starts up it stops at this inscription. The most interesting thing is that the system does not hang, caps lock and num lock merrily wink when pressed, the hard drive sometimes crunches, but it never reaches the desktop.

Have you encountered such a problem? Any ideas how should I do? I really don't want to reinstall Windows.

Thanks in advance!»

So, in this article we will try to summarize the experience gained as a result of solving the problem on Serg's laptop and the experience of other lucky people who faced a similar problem.

Judging by the text of the message, for some reason Windows 8 could not install updates correctly (in the case of Serg, due to a power outage). As a result, at the next boot, the “smart” system decides that its crash was caused by a problem in one of the installed updates and tries to roll them back, but for some reason it cannot do it. As a result, the boot of a computer with Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 stops at a screen that says:

In English, the error looks like this:

In some cases, it is really worth waiting a few minutes / hours, after which the system itself will correctly roll back the latest updates. But it often happens that this inscription appears at every boot and somehow it becomes impossible to remove it and log into the system normally.

In general, Microsoft described this problem in one of the articles in its knowledge base - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949358 . In the article, as possible methods of "treatment", it is proposed to perform the following operations (sequentially, starting from the first, moving on to the next solution if the previous one did not help):

Restart your computer
Disconnect all removable media and external hard drives from the computer, and reboot again
Check the system with the Windows Update Troubleshooter utility
Use the system recovery functionality (boot from the installation / boot disk and roll back to one of the previous restore points)
Reset Windows 8 via features
Reinstall OS

Methods 1 and 2 do not need additional comments, I think. They are worth trying first.

Regarding the 3rd method, you can run the Windows 8 update diagnostic utility only from a running system, but since it does not boot, let's try to perform such a check in safe mode.

To do this, you need to boot from the boot or installation disk / for Windows 8. Then we need to launch the command line. If you are using a Windows 8 installation disc, the easiest way to do this is by pressing the key combination on the language / system layout selection screen Shift+F10.

On the command line, execute

bcdedit /set (current) safeboot minimal

After the next restart, the computer should boot into Safe Mode.

Start the Update Service Diagnostic Wizard by running the command:

Msdt /id WindowsUpdateDiagnostic

Then just follow the wizard's instructions.

After the wizard finishes, disable booting Windows 8 in safe mode:

bcdedit /deletevalue (default) safeboot

We reboot the system and try to boot in normal mode. If it doesn't help, move on to the next method.

System Restore

If applicable, try performing a System Restore by booting from a boot/install disk and see if the issue goes away.

If this did not help, but you don’t want to reinstall / reset Windows, try these mods first.

Clearing the update cache

We boot into safe mode again (described above), open the command prompt and clean up the contents of the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\ folder (it is in this folder that Windows downloads updates and starts installing them from here)). You can do this directly from the explorer or with the following command:

Ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download Download.old

Note. The command does not delete, but renames the Download directory to Download.old

Disable the automatic start of the Windows Update service:

Sc config wuauserv start= disabled

We check whether Windows 8 boots in normal mode, if so, enable the autostart of the update service and start it:

Sc config wuauserv start= auto net start wuauserv

The system must re-download the updates and install them.

Restoring the Windows 8 Component Store

Let's try with DISM. To do this, boot into safe mode again and execute the following commands in sequence on the command line:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

Note. The command can be executed for quite a long time, up to several hours, be sure to wait for it to finish.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Disable booting in Safe Mode and check if Windows 8 boots normally.

If this did not help, and the inscription “Setting up Windows updates. Revert Changes doesn't go away, you should probably consider resetting or reinstalling the system...

You are trying to install an update on Windows 10, but a notification is displayed that it cannot be completed, after the system starts to undo the changes. Learn more about how to fix this error.

Errors that installation fails to complete are not new to users. Many have encountered an error in Windows 7 in which the system notifies that updates could not be completed, and then the process of reverting the changes starts. Since some time, more and more users are seeing this problem in Windows 10.

The system downloads updates correctly and displays information that they are ready to be installed. If you ignore the installation, then after a while the OS itself will “throw out” a notification that Windows should be updated, prompting you to restart the computer to complete the operation.

And here the problem begins. The update theoretically installs, but at some point a warning about a possible failure occurs. The notification “We were unable to complete the updates” appears, and the screen below shows “Reverting changes” - Windows 10 begins the uninstall procedure and rolls back the system to the state before it was installed. And so again and again, with each attempt to update the OS. How to fix?

Method number 1. Windows Update Troubleshooter

To get started, you can use the Windows 10 Automatic Troubleshooter. This is an official tool that can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. The utility diagnoses the system area for faults in it, and then tries to solve them with basic methods. The effectiveness may be less or more, depending on the problem, but it's always worth giving this program a try when we start troubleshooting.

Download Troubleshooter

Once downloaded, launch the utility and follow the instructions on the screen. The program will automatically search for problems and then try to fix them.

If a notification is displayed that "" is restored, you can try updating the system.

Method number 2. Clearing the SoftwareDistribution folder

The SoftwareDistribution folder contains the update installers. The problem may be due to the fact that they are damaged or compatibility errors. Therefore, it is worth deleting the contents of this folder and restarting the service.

To be able to do this, you should temporarily stop the service, otherwise the deletion of files will be blocked.

Press the key combination Win + R and enter the command:

Find the service in the list, right-click on it and select Stop. The service will be suspended.

Again, simultaneously press the Win + R keys, enter the path to the directory below and press Enter:

C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution

You need to delete all the contents of the SoftwareDistribution directory - it should remain empty.

After deleting all files from the folder, open the list of services again (enter the command "services.msc" in the run window), find, right-click on it and select "Run".

Now try updating the system.

Every Windows product has a different lifecycle. It starts when the system is first released and ends when support and bug fixes stop. No exception and Windows 7, which will receive updates for a couple more years. In this article, we will analyze in detail the main reasons why updates are not installed in Windows 7 and how to fix this problem.

Description of the problem

Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 in 2015. But despite this, the release of security updates and fixes for system errors will last until January 2020. Therefore, the problem when updates do not start, do not download, or an endless search for them appears is quite common and popular.

Often it is associated with system problems or failures of various components or services of the system, but viruses should not be ruled out either. A full computer scan for threats and further cleaning may help, but does not give a 100% guarantee.

Why are Windows 7 updates not installing?

The main causes of failures to download and install updates on the OS:

Download problems. Initially, the files are loaded into the cache memory and remain there until the user allows them to be installed or restarts the computer. If you download them with errors, installing updates on your computer is not possible. Unfortunately, with a new download of update files, the data is not updated.
Windows registry problems. Often, when installing updates, the problem is hidden in the failure of the registry settings or incorrect parameters set in the registry.
Failure of the Windows Update service.
Lack or limited amount of free space on the system drive. A fairly common problem, because with a small amount of required hard disk space, the update will not be installed or will be installed with errors.
Lack of Internet or blocking by installed antivirus. Very often, the antivirus blocks files unknown to it. Disabling it while the update is downloading will solve this problem.
Virus blocking.

What to do if Windows 7 is not updated

If updates are not installed in Windows 7 or there is an endless search for them, the first step is to use the Microsoft "Fix It" utility. After launching it, it will automatically fix any problems related to the update center. You can download the utility from the official website at the link.

Consider the main methods for fixing the problem.

Clearing files in the cache

If the reason is downloading updates with errors, you need to clear the downloaded update files that are in the cache. And only then re-download them. For this you should:

Registry setting

The problem with the OS registry is solved by removing the component responsible for updates. Do the following:

Starting OS services

If you receive a failure to install an update in Windows 7, the problem may be in the system service and is resolved by performing the following steps:

Click "Start" → in the search we write "Services" → open this window.
In the window that appears, look for a service with the name « Windows Update". If the service is disabled, click "Start" and the problem will be solved.
If the service is up and running, click Stop.
Launch the "Command Prompt" by pressing "Win + R" → type the command "SoftwareDistribution" → "OK".
In the window that appears, delete all folders and files.
Next, start the service « Windows Update » (point 2) and restart the PC.
We go to the update center and install updates without previous errors.

If a specific update is not installed for you (an example of the update “kb2999226” is considered), you must enter the name of the update in the search field on the site, download it and install it on your computer.

Although Microsoft no longer supports the Windows 7 operating system, it still releases security updates for it. The question of why updates are not installed is very relevant. This article will provide answers for fixing common problems.

Disabled automatic update

A common reason that Windows 7 does not find updates is to turn off auto-update in the settings. Enabling this feature is quite simple:

It happens that no checkbox on the taskbar. Then you can solve the problem in another way:

To do this, go to "Start", select " Control Panel»;
Further " system and safety»;
then select from the list Enable or disable automatic updates».

Incorrect download of updates

It is possible to fix the error of incorrect download of updates for Windows in the following way:

After that, you can start the re-installation.

Registry issues

The reason that Windows 7 is not updated may be a registry failure. You can fix it like this:

Update service not working properly

Some problems with installing packages are related to the service responsible for downloading them. The failure is fixed in several ways:

If the process fails to start again, you will need to perform additional steps:

Not enough hard disk space

Problems can be quite primitive, such as lack of hard disk space. Installation services require minimum 5 GB free space.

The solution to the problem is quite simple. Required to be removed unnecessary files and programs from the system disk. To do this, you can use the standard Windows 7 tools, for example, "" located in the control panel.

Internet problems

Problems with the Internet connection can be the reason why updates are not installed:

Damage to the storage of system components

It happens that problems can be caused by damage to system components. The reasons may be a bunch of:

0x800B0101 - failed to install the certificate;
0x8007371B - transaction distribution error;
0x80070490 - error of a non-existent or deleted update file;
0x8007370B - error identifying object properties;
0x80070057 - parameters error;
0x800736CC - element matching error;
0x8007000D - data initialization error;
0x800F081F - Missing required files.

The above are the most common errors that occur when system components are damaged. There are several ways to resolve.

One of the most effective is installationWindows 7 in update mode. This option is characterized by the correction of most errors, while it will save personal files and system settings.

For this would need:

When you run this command, the system will check the integrity of the files and be able to restore them. If the data is restored, you can start the installation again.