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Windows 10 Forced Updates Causing Endless Crash Loops

This article is more than 8 years old.

I think we can now all agree: Microsoft ’s hardline policy on Windows 10’s forced updates is silly. Very silly. Since launching nine days ago Windows Update has sent out an unstable graphics driver which switched off monitors, a buggy security patch which corrupted Windows Explorer and there are now a number of reports that a third update is causing Window 10 machines to crash over and over again...

The patch in question is KB3081424 (ironically enough a roll-up of bug fixes) and during its update process affected users find it fails and triggers the message: “We couldn't complete the updates, undoing the changes." Undoing them results in a mandatory system reboot, but as soon as the user logs back on Windows 10’s update process kicks in and tries to install KB3081424 again.

I’m sure you’re way ahead of me here, but since Windows 10 updates cannot be stopped KB3081424 tries to install over and over again which leaves systems caught in endless reboot loops.

Read more - Windows 10: Should You Upgrade?

Why wouldn’t KB3081424 eventually install correctly? Because the initial failed install has been found to create a bad entry in the Windows 10 registry which stops its subsequent attempts to reinstall from working correctly.

What To Do?

The good news is, despite Windows 10’s best efforts, some industrious users have found a temporary fix to get rid of this bad registry entry. So before KB3081424 tries to install again quickly follow these instructions:

  • Type “regedit” in the Start menu
  • In the window that opens navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProfileList
  • Backup your registry key as what you’re about to do is risky (with ProfileList highlighted, click File and Export and choose a backup name)
  • Then scan through the ProfileList IDs and delete any with ProfileImagePath found in it as it shouldn’t be there
  • Close regedit, reboot and next time KB3081424 should install properly

This method should clear out the bad registry entry and since not every user is impacted by the KB3081424 bug, the odds are on your side that it will be second time lucky now the bad reg entry has gone.

Read more - Windows 10 Vs Windows 8 Vs Windows 7: What's The Difference?

And no, at the time of writing, sadly the tool Microsoft released to stop certain updates from reinstalling does not work with this patch. Hopefully that will change soon along with a Microsoft official comment on the problem and its plans for a fix.

All of which teaches a valuable lesson...

Give Users Options

What KB3081424, like the Nvidia bug and broken security patch before it, demonstrates is Windows Update is far from a flawless entity. Three troubled updates in nine days may be extreme but there have still been “40 or so” Windows Updates which have caused problems during 2015 alone.

As such Microsoft’s track record has not earned it the right to force every update - big or small - upon users. Yes, users can opt for “Fast” or “Slow” rings for feature and driver updates (that equates to a one month delay for Windows 10 Home users on the latter) but security updates are immediate and unstoppable. And security updates have a worst track record than feature and driver updates.

Read more - Windows 10 Is Automatically Downloading On Windows 7 And Windows 8

All of which means not giving Windows 10 users at least the option to disable individual updates should a bad update appear (they can gladly stay on by default) is totally impractical.

Both KB3081424 and the Nvidia bug pushed users into an endless loop of crashes and reboots and with Windows 10 expected to reach one billion devices over its lifetime, the stakes are too high to expect Microsoft to perfectly vet every update on every potential combination of hardware to which it will be exposed.

To which I conclude:

Dear Microsoft, your intentions with Windows 10’s automatic updates are noble. An up-to-date PC is much better than a neglected PC and I recognise the ideal you are striving towards. But it isn’t realistic, bad updates happen.

Users need the power to be able to protect themselves from a bad update until you deliver the fixes. I’d like to point out this actually buys you more time to deliver better fixes without rushing. After all KB3081424 was a cumulative patch for existing bugs which actually caused worse problems than it was fixing.

Windows 10 is a wonderful step forward, you're back on your game after Windows 8 so please don’t ruin it through pig headed policies. A gracious u-turn now is better than a forced one later on. Think about it.

Read more - Windows 10 Automatic Updates Causing Serious New Problems

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