stuck updates

Steve's Windows 10 machine won't update beyond 1803. Leo says that Microsoft pulled 1809 because of some bugs. It will be fixed and available again soon, though. Feature updates aren't critical — it's just the security updates that are important. But if it's preventing him from getting security updates, then it could mean the update is blocked and he'll have to clear 1803 in order to get back to updating. Microsoft has a troubleshooter for blocked updates, and Leo recommends running it.

Roger's Windows 7 desktop PC isn't updating anymore. Have they stopped supporting it? Leo says no, Windows 7 is still supported. Roger may just have a stuck update that's preventing the others from being installed. Here's a tech note from Microsoft on how to clear it.

Bob's friend has a computer who's Windows 7 update is taking forever to install. Leo says that Microsoft has patched it seven times to try and and speed it up and in 2016 they finally fixed the issue. Chances are, an update failed and that's what caused the logjam. It also could be malware that disabled the update utility without his knowledge. Leo recommends clearing all the updates and starting over.

Peter has been having trouble with Windows Vista taking forever to check for updates and download. Should he reset Windows Update? Leo says to be careful about that. There can be a blocked update and Microsoft has a fix for that. A failed update can block any future updates and he'll have to get rid of that update and start over. Leo says he can also do an offline update. Peter can download the service pack and update it manually. Leo says that eventually, he's going to want to run Windows 10. He'll have to buy it, but it would be worth it. He should at least get Windows 7.

Jack had to replace his hard drive. He updated to Windows 10 and rolled back to Windows 7, but now it won't update any fixes. Leo says this is another reason to not buy a Windows machine. This happens when an update gets blocked or doesn't complete and until it does, you can't get the next update.

Jack could just reinstall Windows 7 and start again. That's the easiest way. He can try resetting the update here with these instructions from support.microsoft.com, but it may be easier to just start over.

Ivan is frustrated because he can't seem to update to Windows 8.1. It keeps giving him an error after downloading 2 GB. It's very frustrating because he is a truck driver and he has to use his mobile data to do it.

Lauren's laptop has green horizontal lines. She tried to restore her OS and that seemed to fix the lines issue, but now she's dealing with Windows installation issues. Leo says that's interesting because the green lines usually point to a hardware issue. Leo says that it's important to install all the updates, otherwise she's vulnerable to security issues.

Todd got an HP Pavilion 4 with Windows 8 and he's having trouble updating it. Every time he tries to update, it freezes up and he has to do an autorepair. Leo says that Windows 8 changed the way updates work. He'll have to do all the Windows 8.0 updates first, and he can get updates from the Windows Store. Once he's opened that, it'll tell him what updates he's missing.

Lisa is having trouble with her Windows update -- it keeps updating the same files. Leo says that sometimes Windows update fails or gets blocked and it can't get past the failed update. So the updates stack up. It could be that running as a limited user is preventing her from updating. Lisa should log into Windows as an Administrator and then run update. She can also run Microsoft's FixIt utility. She should also just run critical updates, not the optional ones.

Joyce's laptop stopped installing updates. It keeps looping during configuration. Leo says Joyce has a stuck update and it can be concerning because it could indicate malware is on her computer. She's thinking about just buying a new computer and giving her old one to her son. Leo says that's a good idea, but she should just make sure she wipes the hard drive and install Windows fresh so they don't have access to her data. Should she upgrade to Windows 8?