Microsoft announces auto-uninstall for bad Win10 patches

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Yesterday, Microsoft posted an odd Knowledge Base article that has me scratching my head. KB 4492307 says: Windows automatically installs updates to k
[See the full post at: Microsoft announces auto-uninstall for bad Win10 patches]

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Elly

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and what else gets removed, 1803 etc?

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johnf, woody

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Good question. If you read the KB article closely, it only applies to Win10 cumulative updates and Win10 driver updates. I think. That isn’t made clear in the KB article.

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I don’t think this is new. I’ve had very similar messages in the past when quality updates have failed to completely install. In those particular cases I figured it was just reporting a rollback as the install had failed.

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woody

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I believe that’s EXACTLY what the KB is meant to describe.

But… I wonder why they’re documenting it now? Update failure rollbacks have been a feature for at least a hundred years.

The error I’m familiar with is “Failure configuring Windows updates. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer.”

(Note that the official KB documentation on that one is only for Win7 and 8.1 — but I’ve seen the error puh-len-ty of times on Win10.)

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The new KB is only available in Australian English?

It think we’ve seen that before with slightly unusual stuff.

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I see it in en-us here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4492307/windows-10-why-were-recently-installed-updates-removed

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b

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Thanks. I wasn’t able to find that via Bing or Google.

(Perhaps the Aussie editions are just findable earlier.)

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I found it by manually changing the URL…

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b

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I’ve done that before, but didn’t try this time.

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Too bad they did not use colorful Australian vernacular in the text, it would have been interesting to read.

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rc primak

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Addresses an issue that may degrade graphics and mouse performance with desktop gaming when playing certain games, such as Destiny 2, after installing KB4482887.

I’m putting this one in my pocket for future use when I need to give someone a practical example of why they should never click “Check for Updates” in Windows 10.

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rc primak

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This makes a ton of sense for driver updates that cause a startup failure.

 

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Better yet, if possible, block all driver updates through MS Update.

-- rc primak

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This tells me a lot about the telemetry MS is gathering. I think they are practically monitoring the performance of their OS on your machine in real-time. Obviously this is headed towards MS-365 – their OS in the cloud running on your machine. You will have no control over the OS and its settings – they will control the control system for your machine.

No thanks.

Really.

Nope. Not gonna do that.

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Obviously? I don’t think this has anything to do with telemetry. It’s about local recovery.

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rc primak

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It has everything to do with Telemetry – how else do you think they know which update failed on your machine? Or when your machine last rebooted? Or how many times it rebooted? Or which websites you are visiting?

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Rushing to @b’s defense….

It isn’t necessarily a telemetry function – although it could be implemented that way. It could also be entirely local.

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RamRod

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Windows has enough intelligence to detect failed restarts, especially after an update, without needing to send telemetry for remote analysis. Try interrupting Windows startup with the power button three times in a row, which automatically accesses the recovery environment menu. I think you must be joking about “sites visited”, which can’t be connected with restart recovery in any way.

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rc primak, RamRod

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So it installs a update, determines it didn’t go well, then uninstalls it. I guess its a start, but would rather see the update not install in the first place. I wonder how long before Windows update would again try and install it?

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Link and quote and post all say 30 days.

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boot-loop ‘feature upgrade’ coming to a W10 near you.
(with MS .vxd files being a prime candidate)

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Windows automatically installs updates to keep your device secure and running at peak efficiency. Occasionally, these updates can fail due to incompatibility or issues in new software firing a substantial portion of our quality testers.

Fixed that for them.

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woody

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HA! I hope Dustin Childs sees this…

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I’m not familiar with the name, was he one of the quality assurance team who got laid-off during the mass cull?

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… so are they getting better at detecting which part was the one that failed?

Reminds me of the time when I first installed a cumulative update, then connected a certain peripheral device which worked fine with W7… and the PC crashed and started reverting Windows 10 updates.

If it had been smart enough to just unload the autoinstalled driver for that device, would’ve been a lot less of a hassle.

(Did eventually find a working driver version, not even from the device manufacturer. Connecting the USB cable from that device to a PC that doesn’t already have the working driver installed would seem to be dangerous…)

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It’s not going to act on parts of a failed update. It’s all or nothing. The entire update, even a CU, would have to be rolled back and hidden until the next monthly CU.

-- rc primak

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