I have a laptop that had not been used since January so there were approximately 38 Important updates to be installed when I finally did start it up. I started the update and it seemed to progress normally until after the reboot. The “Configuring Windows Updates” message appeared and then after a while another message saying something like “Update failed. Rolling back changes”. Then it rebooted and tried again and continued in this manner until I just shut it down and then rebooted into safe mode. I was then able to Restore my system to a date prior to the updates being installed.
A Google search revealed that this was a common problem with this update: https://www.google.com/search?q=failure+configuring+windows+updates+loop&ie=UTF-8
I tried the suggestions in these posts, plus some more linked in those posts:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/failure-configuring-windows-updates
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-fix-windows-updates-with-fix-wu-utility
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-updates-errors
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-the-Windows-Update-troubleshooter
Nothing solved the problem until I read another suggestion from a user encountering the same problem. He said what worked for him was turning off automatic updating and then trying to install updates in smaller batches. I did this in batches of 2-5 at a time until I encountered the same problem – I took the precaution of creating extra Restore points after each successful update. Eventually I determined that it was hanging on KB3033929.
All others installed correctly. For now, I have “hidden” this update, which is labeled Important but from what I read does not appear to be a critical security update. I’m happy to say my laptop is again running normally.
