Manual Updates

I often get issues following Windows automatic updates and I am often forced to restore to last restore point to fix the issue. Usually this works.

This morning an update downloaded and a re-start was indicated as required. I initially decided to do this later but the machine slowed down so much I attempted one after all. Upon clicking 'restart' the machine wouldn't shut down. I left it at 'shutting down' for half an hour with no disc activity before I hit the kill switch to turn it off manually. I then re-started but lots of things weren't working (no sound) and things were very slow still. I therefore restored to the latest restore point I could see which was earlier this week. The restore actually 'failed to complete', but everything seemed to work OK afterwards. However, after a few minutes the Windows Update had downloaded again and immediately afterwards everything stopped working again.

I tried to restart but ended up unable to shut down as before and again had to hit the button to turn off manually after half an hour of waiting. This time I restarted in safe mode and again restored the machine - this time there WAS a restore point just before this morning update, so I selected that one. I also changed the Windows Update settings to 'download but ask me when to install' to prevent the same thing happening again. I did this because that was the advice I found many times online as this puts you 'in control'. However, my simple question is; now that I am 'in control', how do I know when and which updates to install. Surely if there is a issue it is going to happen anyway when I choose to install, so I just wondered how this advice would actually help and whether I should switch automatic updates back on (not just yet though as I seem to have proved that there is a problem with the updates that are currently pending, at least on my machine).

Well, I spoke too soon. Despite cancelling automatic updates, and despite unchecking the three updates that were downloaded, I was forced to do another re-start. I did nothing to authorise that they be installed but they WERE installed and the same issues ensued.
I had forgotten that somewhere along the road I had also encountered profiles failing to load and failure of the computer to respond to keystrokes. All of these issues happened again. Rather stupidly this time I restored to the restore point before the updates were installed the last time, but of course, prior to that they were installed form the first installation earlier today! Therefore that didn't solve the problem so after several re-starts and manual switch offs I realised I had to restore to the earliest point that I could for today. That has now worked. Obviously it changed my settings back to automatic updates so to prevent these downloading again I pulled out the network cable. Then, before plugging it back I took the nuclear option of setting it as 'never check for updates' in view of what happened earlier. Not ideal but I have no other choice now.

Thanks - that's the answer I suppose. Just install the security ones and hope they don't cause an issue; if they do, deal with them as necessary. Annoying though!

After rolling back to earlier restore points numerous times the problem kept coming back. I had to re-boot in safe mode numerous times to roll back again and again in order to be able get back in to try something else. Eventually I couldn't even get into safe mode without using a rescue disk.

Finally I thought to check 'installed updates' and sure enough there were three Windows Updates there, all dated 20th April, despite my having restored the system many times to earlier dates and with the network cable disconnected to ensure no re-installation. They were updates to Microsoft Office.

I then manually deleted all three and hey presto everything then worked OK. I had noticed that Outlook was also looking a bit strange and I had been unable to switch back to my preferred view (the default view) - that also changed back once I had got rid of those pesky updates.

No more updates for me now unless they are really important security patches. I never use my phone for anything confidential and it has worked a lot better since I stopped allowing updates about a year ago! If it ain't broke.......!